Meet Me at the President’s House - October 26th, 2025

On today’s agenda: Slate recap, upcoming college event plans, and notes on the meeting of two Presidents. 

By Rocky Rūb

Sunday’s meeting commenced with an eruption of applause for Ale Murat, CC ’27, VP of Campus Life, who executed the event of the season: SLATE! As President Cano Cabrera, CC ’26, stated, her efforts are “really putting CCSC on the map.” But it seems that some were not as pleased with the team’s performance working the door at the club—if you can call it that? Murat broke it down for everyone. “Compared to what we spent on entertainment last year, which was just like, two drag performances, we paid for that around $8k and then this year we spent $5k on two acrobats and then two drag performances.” (She failed to address my personal anguish that there wasn’t enough money for me to get the two free drinks promised to all 21+ attendees.) “I thought the acrobats were cool,” Murat continued, “that’s why I said that we should have them.” 

In other news, Gender and Sexuality Representative Francesca Schillaci, CC ’26, proposed a collaborative event with Barnard, given her assessment that “obviously a lot of the gay population is also at Barnard.” You may be wondering, what might this event entail? Or maybe, we have a Gender and Sexuality Representative? And the Council might’ve been wondering the same things. Cano Cabrera inquired, “Would it be like a free Dr. Martens giveaway?” And the tentative answer is: maybe. Time will only tell how the event will take shape, and what queer goodies will bait the attendees. How about a popcorn and poppers movie night? Or I’ve heard that The Woods Wednesdays are fun this time of year! Email your representatives today with your thoughts!

As the leaves fall and the days get (oh, so much) darker, CCSC is busy getting the ball rolling on the annual Tree Lighting event! Columbia administrators can cut down as many trees as they want, but clearly, getting lit is forever. Murat stated that one goal for this year’s event is getting more varied performances than just acapella groups, though she assured everyone, “love them, love acapella. CCSC LOVES ACAPELLA!” Nonetheless, she’ll be reaching out to other performance groups as well—so, if you haven’t been tapped to perform yet, better luck next year! 

Lastly, Cano Cabrera recounted some meetings he had with deans and administrators during the week. First, in his weekly deans meeting, he recounted that “Dean Khan specifically, is very confused as to why there’s such a hard, like, way to have fun at this campus.” Dean Khan is, of course, referring to the financial barriers clubs face when trying to plan events on campus using Columbia facilities. I’d be failing my liberal arts education if I didn’t boil it down to capitalism, but alas, I’m just a witness to the machine. After much anticipation, Cano Cabrera attended dinner at the University President's House—“which is such a pretty house, oh my God,” he added—on Tuesday, October 21st, and “it was really weird, kind of.” Cano Cabrera and the Columbia Engineering Student Council President, Janie Zhang, SEAS ’26, were the only two student representatives from CC and SEAS invited. “However, the entire executive board of GSSC was invited, the entire board from ABC, also reps from SGB … there was one from Hillel, and the president of MSA.” What might they be doing? A Q&A with Columbia’s biggest snake (slither.io player), Claire Shipman!

Council members and press alike were on the edge of their seats. Dinner with the President, and no one brought a brick to throw? But according to Cano Cabrera, the evening was PR certified and eye-rollingly tame. “We kind of sat in the living room on the whole floor. And it was like Claire Shipman right here,” he pointed to his seat at the front of Jed D. Satow Room, “everyone else right there,” he pointed to the Council members sitting around the room, “and then you would kind of like, raise your hand, and then she would answer a very PR response.” 

But what did you ask, Sam? “I talked about [on] October 7, how a lot of students perceived that the campus is trying to shut down pro-Palestinian speech and pro-Palestinian groups, but they’re trying to elevate Jewish student groups. And although that might not be the case, the system in which it’s set up right now, of event review versus regional review, versus demonstration pre-notification, all these things, sets it up for groups to have certain privileges over others. But that doesn’t matter if what we’re feeling as students is that the school already has an agenda that is very pro-Jewish student or pro-Israel. And then also, I added that talking to Hillel representatives and the President of Hillel, Jewish students don’t even feel supported.” 

He seemed to forget that what we then wanted to hear was Shipman’s response, and continued by talking about the price for funding Lerner Pub. Luckily, Eli Baum, CC ’26, a new University Senator (and publisher at The Blue and White who told me that if I ever wrote ill of him, he’d blacklist this column and throw me in a well), identified a lull in Cano Cabrera’s monologue and asked, “Wait sorry, what was the response to the double standard point being made?”

According to Cano Cabrera, after he explained to Shipman that there is a difference between sending a group to the northern hidden part of Morningside’s campus (SEAS territory) instead of College Walk’s prime real estate, that “she couldn’t comprehend my question, because she’s like, “[event review and pre-notification are] just so different.” The Blue and White is preparing a reward for anyone with information on what the difference could be. 

He then described them having “rallied” with one another (a term that he adopted from Dean K for having a soft debate with someone—not to be confused with those pesky protests!). Shipman said that a demonstration on Low Plaza would be too distracting from our “academic mission.” Cano Cabrera said that “what is distracting is that all of Public Safety closed off Low, so you have to walk around the entire campus to get your class on the other side of College Walk.” To which, apparently, Shipman started to get “pissy.” But don’t worry, now it’s all water under Law Bridge. “Afterwards, she came up to me personally and she was like, ‘great question.’ And then I was like, ‘sorry I sounded a little too harsh.’” Cano Cabrera concluded that he “counted [the rally] as a win because the President of Hillel and other groups that aren’t pro-Israel congratulated me on the question.” 

There is no meeting next week for fall break. So, until our November return, remember to hug your friends close and your situationships closer—you never know who they might meet on their three day trip to Cabo!