Student council

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Student Council meets biweekly on Tuesdays at 1 PM. Meetings are open to the general GSAPP student body. If you would like to attend a meeting, please email SC President Holly Baker in advance. Current students can review the archive of meeting notes here.

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.

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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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.

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.

To be eligible to run, students must be currently enrolled at GSAPP. 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 cohort are eligible to vote.

2024-25 Student Council Executive Board

President: Holly Baker
Vice President: Bukhtawar Shahbaz
Treasurer: Charlotte Crum
Secretary: Callum Gauthier

2024-25 Student Council Members

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
Holly Baker
Anika Tsapatsaris

M.ARCH II
Mario Ramirez-Arrazola
Claire Wolsk

M.ARCH I
Bukhtawar Shahbaz
Zayna Asad Sheikh

M.S.AAD
Nikoletta Zakynthinou Xanthi
Daniel Hahn

M.S. AUD
Megan Haralovich

M.S. CCCP
CCCP 1: Satyam Mistry
CCCP 2: Callum Gauthier

M.S. CDP
Sebastian Schloesser

M.S. HP
HP 1: Elizabeth Kostina
HP 2: Charlotte Crum

M.S. UP
UP 1: Christian Harvey
UP 2: Summer Smith

M.S. RED
Hudson Matz
Jocelyn Yang

PhD
Hayes Buchanan
Vinita Govindarajan
Mauricio Rada

Dual Degree
James Oberting (M.Arch I / HP)
Brianna Love (M.Arch III / MSRED)

University Senator
Camille McGriff

Student Group Representatives
Marly McNeal
Omar Ismail