Is there any way to set aside space for students to make phone/conference calls or meeting with clients for projects?
Trying to find a quiet spot (within reception range) to have a phone interview or speak with project clients in IAB is near impossible and inconvenient. B-school, TC, etc. allow students to reserve space in designated library rooms. Any way to arrange for rooms not in use to be reserved by students at short notice?
This may seem trite compared to some of the bigger issues deserving attention at SIPA, but the restrooms in this school are horrendous. It is not only that they are not cleaned very often but it is that students themselves are not courteous to their fellow classmates when using the bathrooms (use your imagination).
I'm not sure if this should be posted under "Student Affairs" or "Building and Facilities", but it's been very difficult to book rooms in IAB for students' events, study sessions, etc. Is there a way to develop an on-line system or something better that the students can use to book rooms? I waste so much time using this...
Reserving a room in IAB is like fighting WW3. If we are SIPA students and hosting a SIPA student event or an event for a Professor, why do we have to beg 10 different people in order to get a room?
I second the lack of conference call space. There is no room to conduct job interviews or phone calls on behalf of professors without losing reception or being bombarded with noise.
The facilities in the library (as it relates to individual/private study) are in dire need of an update. Here's a list of things I can see (and feel) from where I'm sitting:
1. The chairs are uncomfortable (which is probably why I'm ornery enough to write this).
2. The walls are filthy and covered with pen and pencil marks where the pain isn't chipped or falling off of the wall.
3. The workspaces are often filthy, beyond just marks on the walls.
4. There aren't outlets to plug in laptops. If you aren't going to provide enough computers for everyone to use, at least provide us with power.
5. Generally, the building feels dilapidated.
6. We have an environmental studies program, and yet in the bathrooms, all of the paper towels get thrown directly into the trash. I don't get it . . . isn't this an "easy win" for the environment?
7. The vending machines all sell bottled water. New York city has some of the finest water available for free in the world. Again, going back to the environmental concentration: why are we selling bottled water when it's openly acknowledged by our own program that it is neither needed and is ultimately harmful to the environment with no benefit?
8. Could you perhaps add more water bottle refilling stations, like the one you have in the offices on the 14th floor? Also, instead of selling the bottled water, perhaps you could consider selling reusable water bottles and driving people to use the drinking fountains.
I want to emphasize that none of this would matter to much if I was attending a school that was free or close to it. But I'm attending a school purports to be one of the best. These facilities really scream otherwise to me.
I echo the room booking thing. It took me about 2 weeks to figure out the 5 different avenues for room booking.
In my case I had no date or time preference, and wanted AV equipment but it involved a constant back and forth of potential dates and times. Why isn't there one repository with a room booking calendar online?? That way I can scan through and figure out which room has what I want, and when they are free.
1) what is our cafeteria? has someone visited the law school cafeteria/study area?
2) coffee shop - why it takes sometimes 20min to get a coffee at sipa? could we have a small coffee booth in the 4th floor? thanks !
3) our library is a disaster. Aside from the group study room in the 3rd floor, there is no way anyone can find a decent chair/table that has an outlet close to it. Talking about outlets they should be everywhere...
4) i agree with the conference room problems mentioned before.... but make it room with a "s" (rooms)
5) i would encourage the administration to take a tour at a very distant location (columbia law school) to have a sense of what we need in terms of study environment and food selection....
We need some kind of online room booking system - none of this talk to five different people to find out which rooms are free. It should all be centralized online so you can pick the room and times you want and you can see which are free.
Is there anyway we can keep the library open longer during midterms/finals period? It would be ideal if it could stay open for 24 hours, but if that's not possible, can we at least extend the closing time to 2am?
Last winter my unofficial survey found that the 409 Computer Lab was the hottest room on Campus. While we were wearing winter sweaters and boots, the room asked for bathing swits and flip-flops, making it impossible for us to concentrate. I could not stop cleaning up my own sweat, and I can't imagine how the poor computers were suffering the heat.
And don't even dare to go to Lehman Library (coldest space on campus) after working in 409: You will get a very bad cold.
1. COMPUTER LABS: I'll start with the computer labs. Especially the 4th floor lab. When I returned back to campus this fall, I noticed that the SAME BROKEN hole punch was STILL BROKEN in the 4th floor computer lab. The staplers never have staples or they are broken. Is is that difficult to get working staplers and hole punchers. To this day the whole puncher on the 4th floor has not been replaced.
2. PAGE QUOTA?? Only 1000 pages. I have already used up my limit and now have to pay for pages, why is this so? There are many many 50 to 100 page documents that professors ask us to read, I need to print these out. How can a graduate program have a 1000 page quota? I have noticed from signs in the library that the undergraduates get an extra 1000 pages. Why this injustice?
3. LACK OF RECYCLE CANS
Where every garbage can is, there should be recycle cans for paper and glass/tin. Not just a few here and there. We are printed double sided b/c SIPA is concerned about the environment, well how concerned can they really be if there is not enough recycle cans around?
4. HOUSING/PARKING Some of us did not get student housing and cannot afford to live in Manhattan and commute from Brooklyn/Queens /NJ. Many of us have cars and drive in because of the late hours we keep at SIPA studying. If Columbia cannot accommodate everyone with housing then they should accommodate commuter students with DISCOUNTED PARKING, somewhere near campus.
During midterms and finals, there should be extended library hours.
ECONOMICS: There should be more tutors to accommodate students need for learning economics, since it is a subject we are forced to endure, even when we know where we end up working will not require learning how to find the equilibrium of the MCA and the MSC
Why does it take 20 minutes to get a coffee. Hire more counter people please, I do not want to waste the few minutes I have between classes waiting on a line that should take 5 minutes!!
I definitely second most of what has been said. Also, why is it that none of the rooms seem to have reliable tech equipment? Especially 417, where every week we leave some highly respected figure at the mercy of our temperamental sound system?
Other rooms seem to have problems with powerpoint as well.
For those of you present today (Monday 10/30) in the "Conceptual Foundations for International Affairs" class, you witnessed yet the latest failure of that room's simple audio system. For the record, nearly EVERY lecture I have had in that room has been marked by some sort of A/V system failure, if not as serious as today's. Just do the math, and SIPA is grossing nearly $1.5 million dollars from THAT class alone. Divide it out, and each student is paying about $250 PER LECTURE. Why in the world, then, can SIPA not afford (or give priority to) a working A/V system in their primary lecture hall. It baffles, if not offends, the mind.
I second the microphone issue. While OCS can criticize us for having the gall to sign up for meetings that we don't attend, SIPA (who we're paying $13,000 each semester to attend) has so little shame that during every single lecture for conceptual foundations the lecturer, AV guy & TAs spend at least 10 minutes in the beginning trying to get the audio and video to work.
If I exhibited such unprofessional behavior (repeatedly!) at my job, I'd get fired. If this were a movie or a performance, I'd demand my money back (and I would get it).
The fact that this continues in an institution that puts such I high premium on its services is a total embarrassment and an outrage.
6th floor computer lab + study area is just too small and get crowded easily. I feel if the balcony like open and unused space on the right side of computer terminals can be covered and the partition removed will give more space.
I had nastygrams put on my bike in each of four different locations (no, not just the handicapped entrance button) telling me to move my bike. There was no suggestion as to where i WAS allowed to park it until the fourth note, that recommended that I park it in the WEIN courtyard. Evidently the Wein building is a LARGE dorm. There are approx 8 bike racks for ALL of SIPA, the Law School and a HUGE dorm. REALLY? Many of us depend on bikes to get around safely since we weren't given campus housing, and were thus relegated to not-so-safe Harlem for the only affordable housing. I need to be able to park my bike AT SIPA, not fight for one of 8 spots that are shared by 3,000 students. Furthermore, it's a security/safety issue. My bike SEAT was stolen from WEIN while a "security guard" was supposedly on duty. Moreover, the further I have to walk in low lit areas late at night to get to my bike, the higher my chances are of running into people I'd rather avoid. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get some bike racks in front of the 118th street entrance.
Classrooms:
The auditorium is an embarrassment for those of us who pay so much to go here, yet regularly sit while the staff is unable to make the microphone work (or stop screeching feedback). The library:
It's a meat locker and closes WAY too early. Please use some of that electricity money to pay employees to keep it open longer.
Lounges:
Why don't we have much of a student lounge, like the law school (aside from the lack of alumni millionaries)? We still pay a lot to sit in very few cheap plastic chairs
Computer Labs:
Not that I'm a huge fan of killing trees, but for 40k a year, we should be able to print as much as we want-- esp. when profs dont' bother to put together a coursepack and instead have us looking up online articles for 3 hours a week. When my mother visited recently, she was horrified that THIS was what an Ivy League computer facility looks like. Pretty embarrassing.
Can the fishbowl be made to be more attractive? Some plants, more tables and chairs... anything? It is so strangely set up now that people don't know what to do with themselves out there. Sit on the incline, on the ground...
23 comments:
Is there any way to set aside space for students to make phone/conference calls or meeting with clients for projects?
Trying to find a quiet spot (within reception range) to have a phone interview or speak with project clients in IAB is near impossible and inconvenient. B-school, TC, etc. allow students to reserve space in designated library rooms. Any way to arrange for rooms not in use to be reserved by students at short notice?
This may seem trite compared to some of the bigger issues deserving attention at SIPA, but the restrooms in this school are horrendous. It is not only that they are not cleaned very often but it is that students themselves are not courteous to their fellow classmates when using the bathrooms (use your imagination).
I'm not sure if this should be posted under "Student Affairs" or "Building and Facilities", but it's been very difficult to book rooms in IAB for students' events, study sessions, etc. Is there a way to develop an on-line system or something better that the students can use to book rooms? I waste so much time using this...
The chairs in rooms 1401 and 1101 are uncomfortable and old. When can we have better ones?
Why is the library so cold?
Reserving a room in IAB is like fighting WW3. If we are SIPA students and hosting a SIPA student event or an event for a Professor, why do we have to beg 10 different people in order to get a room?
I second the lack of conference call space. There is no room to conduct job interviews or phone calls on behalf of professors without losing reception or being bombarded with noise.
The facilities in the library (as it relates to individual/private study) are in dire need of an update. Here's a list of things I can see (and feel) from where I'm sitting:
1. The chairs are uncomfortable (which is probably why I'm ornery enough to write this).
2. The walls are filthy and covered with pen and pencil marks where the pain isn't chipped or falling off of the wall.
3. The workspaces are often filthy, beyond just marks on the walls.
4. There aren't outlets to plug in laptops. If you aren't going to provide enough computers for everyone to use, at least provide us with power.
5. Generally, the building feels dilapidated.
6. We have an environmental studies program, and yet in the bathrooms, all of the paper towels get thrown directly into the trash. I don't get it . . . isn't this an "easy win" for the environment?
7. The vending machines all sell bottled water. New York city has some of the finest water available for free in the world. Again, going back to the environmental concentration: why are we selling bottled water when it's openly acknowledged by our own program that it is neither needed and is ultimately harmful to the environment with no benefit?
8. Could you perhaps add more water bottle refilling stations, like the one you have in the offices on the 14th floor? Also, instead of selling the bottled water, perhaps you could consider selling reusable water bottles and driving people to use the drinking fountains.
I want to emphasize that none of this would matter to much if I was attending a school that was free or close to it. But I'm attending a school purports to be one of the best. These facilities really scream otherwise to me.
I echo the room booking thing. It took me about 2 weeks to figure out the 5 different avenues for room booking.
In my case I had no date or time preference, and wanted AV equipment but it involved a constant back and forth of potential dates and times. Why isn't there one repository with a room booking calendar online?? That way I can scan through and figure out which room has what I want, and when they are free.
Facilities in the IAB building are quite a joke.
1) what is our cafeteria? has someone visited the law school cafeteria/study area?
2) coffee shop - why it takes sometimes 20min to get a coffee at sipa? could we have a small coffee booth in the 4th floor? thanks !
3) our library is a disaster. Aside from the group study room in the 3rd floor, there is no way anyone can find a decent chair/table that has an outlet close to it. Talking about outlets they should be everywhere...
4) i agree with the conference room problems mentioned before.... but make it room with a "s" (rooms)
5) i would encourage the administration to take a tour at a very distant location (columbia law school) to have a sense of what we need in terms of study environment and food selection....
We need some kind of online room booking system - none of this talk to five different people to find out which rooms are free. It should all be centralized online so you can pick the room and times you want and you can see which are free.
Is there anyway we can keep the library open longer during midterms/finals period? It would be ideal if it could stay open for 24 hours, but if that's not possible, can we at least extend the closing time to 2am?
Last winter my unofficial survey found that the 409 Computer Lab was the hottest room on Campus. While we were wearing winter sweaters and boots, the room asked for bathing swits and flip-flops, making it impossible for us to concentrate. I could not stop cleaning up my own sweat, and I can't imagine how the poor computers were suffering the heat.
And don't even dare to go to Lehman Library (coldest space on campus) after working in 409: You will get a very bad cold.
Where do I begin?
1.
COMPUTER LABS:
I'll start with the computer labs. Especially the 4th floor lab. When I returned back to campus this fall, I noticed that the SAME BROKEN hole punch was STILL BROKEN in the 4th floor computer lab. The staplers never have staples or they are broken. Is is that difficult to get working staplers and hole punchers. To this day the whole puncher on the 4th floor has not been replaced.
2. PAGE QUOTA?? Only 1000 pages. I have already used up my limit and now have to pay for pages, why is this so? There are many many 50 to 100 page documents that professors ask us to read, I need to print these out. How can a graduate program have a 1000 page quota?
I have noticed from signs in the library that the undergraduates get an extra 1000 pages. Why this injustice?
3. LACK OF RECYCLE CANS
Where every garbage can is, there should be recycle cans for paper and glass/tin. Not just a few here and there. We are printed double sided b/c SIPA is concerned about the environment, well how concerned can they really be if there is not enough recycle cans around?
4.
HOUSING/PARKING
Some of us did not get student housing and cannot afford to live in Manhattan and commute from Brooklyn/Queens /NJ.
Many of us have cars and drive in because of the late hours we keep at SIPA studying.
If Columbia cannot accommodate everyone with housing then they should accommodate commuter students with DISCOUNTED PARKING, somewhere near campus.
LIBRARY HOURS:
During midterms and finals, there should be extended library hours.
ECONOMICS:
There should be more tutors to accommodate students need for learning economics, since it is a subject we are forced to endure, even when we know where we end up working will not require learning how to find the equilibrium of the MCA and the MSC
6th FLOOR LOUNGE/COFFEE
Why does it take 20 minutes to get a coffee. Hire more counter people please, I do not want to waste the few minutes I have between classes waiting on a line that should take 5 minutes!!
I definitely second most of what has been said. Also, why is it that none of the rooms seem to have reliable tech equipment? Especially 417, where every week we leave some highly respected figure at the mercy of our temperamental sound system?
Other rooms seem to have problems with powerpoint as well.
For those of you present today (Monday 10/30) in the "Conceptual Foundations for International Affairs" class, you witnessed yet the latest failure of that room's simple audio system. For the record, nearly EVERY lecture I have had in that room has been marked by some sort of A/V system failure, if not as serious as today's. Just do the math, and SIPA is grossing nearly $1.5 million dollars from THAT class alone. Divide it out, and each student is paying about $250 PER LECTURE. Why in the world, then, can SIPA not afford (or give priority to) a working A/V system in their primary lecture hall. It baffles, if not offends, the mind.
I second the microphone issue. While OCS can criticize us for having the gall to sign up for meetings that we don't attend, SIPA (who we're paying $13,000 each semester to attend) has so little shame that during every single lecture for conceptual foundations the lecturer, AV guy & TAs spend at least 10 minutes in the beginning trying to get the audio and video to work.
If I exhibited such unprofessional behavior (repeatedly!) at my job, I'd get fired. If this were a movie or a performance, I'd demand my money back (and I would get it).
The fact that this continues in an institution that puts such I high premium on its services is a total embarrassment and an outrage.
6th floor computer lab + study area is just too small and get crowded easily. I feel if the balcony like open and unused space on the right side of computer terminals can be covered and the partition removed will give more space.
BIKE RACKS:
I had nastygrams put on my bike in each of four different locations (no, not just the handicapped entrance button) telling me to move my bike. There was no suggestion as to where i WAS allowed to park it until the fourth note, that recommended that I park it in the WEIN courtyard. Evidently the Wein building is a LARGE dorm. There are approx 8 bike racks for ALL of SIPA, the Law School and a HUGE dorm. REALLY? Many of us depend on bikes to get around safely since we weren't given campus housing, and were thus relegated to not-so-safe Harlem for the only affordable housing. I need to be able to park my bike AT SIPA, not fight for one of 8 spots that are shared by 3,000 students. Furthermore, it's a security/safety issue. My bike SEAT was stolen from WEIN while a "security guard" was supposedly on duty. Moreover, the further I have to walk in low lit areas late at night to get to my bike, the higher my chances are of running into people I'd rather avoid. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get some bike racks in front of the 118th street entrance.
Classrooms:
The auditorium is an embarrassment for those of us who pay so much to go here, yet regularly sit while the staff is unable to make the microphone work (or stop screeching feedback).
The library:
It's a meat locker and closes WAY too early. Please use some of that electricity money to pay employees to keep it open longer.
Lounges:
Why don't we have much of a student lounge, like the law school (aside from the lack of alumni millionaries)? We still pay a lot to sit in very few cheap plastic chairs
Computer Labs:
Not that I'm a huge fan of killing trees, but for 40k a year, we should be able to print as much as we want-- esp. when profs dont' bother to put together a coursepack and instead have us looking up online articles for 3 hours a week. When my mother visited recently, she was horrified that THIS was what an Ivy League computer facility looks like. Pretty embarrassing.
Can the fishbowl be made to be more attractive? Some plants, more tables and chairs... anything? It is so strangely set up now that people don't know what to do with themselves out there. Sit on the incline, on the ground...
Tampon and sanitary napkin dispensers in the bathrooms please!!
Post a Comment