Is it possible to turn down the A/C in the CLIC/MRL labs? I am not sure if you need to turn it on to keep the computers running smoothly, but it is absolutely frigid in there.

Agreed, its absolutely ice-cold inside clic lab.

Probably the temperature can be increased a bit. It will definitely help, otherwise we have to cover ourselves in blankets, jackets and what not to work there. (not at all comfortable)

(hgs: Elias Tesfaye should be contacted for such problems; he has been informed and will investigate.)

Would it be possible to have a reduced courseload for international students. Some of us find it hard to cope with 4 subjects and would not mind finishing the degree a little later.

(hgs: The requirements are driven by US federal immigration laws on full-time enrollment, so we cannot reduce the number of credits required. There may be other options that we'll be exploring, however.)

Personal responsibility.

This is a large department, and it would be extemely appreciated by all of your colleagues if you would clean up your messes, especially in the restrooms, lounge and kitchen.  thanks.

Unfortunately, it seems highly unlikely that any comments here are going to have any consequence. I would like to be proven wrong, but it's not a good sign that the first comment by any member of the administration is urging people to take "personal responsibility" and "clean up their messes" while completely ignoring much more relevant issues already raised, even the ones that should be easier to debate like the one about the excessive course load (which is extremely serious, but essentially has no solution because of current legislation plus established academic practice everywhere).

In fact, I'm even a bit surprised that this space exists at all, but since it does, I hope people will take the opportunity and use it. In my experience, if students can talk among themselves without fear of retaliation, this in itself generates awareness about the commonalities of their problems. Suddenly they realize that certain issues are broader and more serious than they thought possible. It still takes someone with suicidal tendencies to try to openly pressure the administration to effectively *do* something about it in real life, but by exchanging negative experiences the students can protect themselves better from some hazards or at least prepare psychologically for them.

As for anything being actually fixed, well - the most probable reactions I can forecast for any criticism posted here is :

1. Being completely and utterly ignored
2. Being turned around and blamed on the students themselves
3. Receiving an answer that amounts to "blah blah blah and that's why we won't do anything about it."

Harmless and mildly irrelevant things like changing the position of the tables in the CS TA room or the access hours for the swipe cards might result, but other than that, I would not expect justice, empathy or friendliness; borderline polite ineffective bureaucratic answers, if any, are my best bet. Again, I would love to be proven wrong.

(hgs: Constructive criticism is always appreciated; general declarations and defeatist predictions are probably less helpful. From all I can tell, faculty are generally very much interested in improving all aspects of the department, from teaching to more logistical issues. Indeed, the faculty just spend part of their weekend at a retreat that dealt with such issues, helped by students who were willing to step forward and discuss the good, the bad and the ugly. This suggestion box is one small outcome of this effort; there will likely be others. However, everybody appreciates a civil tone that assumes good faith in others, rather than presuming that others are dishonest or uninterested.)

It's not the front CSB door that's the problem, it's the inner doors that actually lead to the faculty offices.  That door is never open, even during business hours. 

Undergraduates, non-majors who are taking classes in the department, plus quite a few ms students who haven't managed to convince security to give them access don't have swipe access to those inner doors.  As a result, people are forced to bother the front office staff every time they need to get in to see a professor or a graduate student TA. 

It would make everyone's life a lot easier (office staff and student) if the department were actually accessible during business hours without having to cut through the main office.

(hgs: We have had problems in the past with non-SEAS/non-CS student using the lounge. The lounge is one of the nicer places on campus, but heavily used. If everybody in SEAS uses the lounge, there won't be room for CS students. All CS MS students should be able to get swipe access; contact Elias Tesfaye for assistance.)

Yes.  That is the door I meant.  It does not put a very welcoming face on the department to have the way in locked.

Prof. hgs,

  Expecting borderline polite ineffective bureaucratic answers doesn't imply presuming that others are dishonest or uninterested. However, it does imply that they probably won't be able to provide effective solutions, full disclosure of relevant information, or even psychological support.

  Take the case of the lady at the front door, for example. If it's true that she is unfireable and/or that there were attempts to fire her, I don't expect that the administration feels free to comment on it. If it's true that she has a known history of treating students harshly (although she probably wouldn't do it to her superiors), again it's unlikely that the administation would admit it publicly. The politics involved in running the department prevents such a frank and open dialog. I wouldn't expect a message from the administration saying something like "yeah, you know, she is really a problem and everybody knows it but when we tried to fire her we were prevented by such and such". It's just not something that the administration can discuss publicly like this.

  The same goes for several other issues; the political reasons why some things are the way they are can frequently not be appropriately explained or discussed openly by the administration.  The solutions given to important issues are probably in most cases already a compromise between what should be done and what can be done.

  Political issues aside, everyone is just too busy. So if the clic lab is too cold (and if the air conditioning there does an unreasonable amount of noise), or if the system for printing to the printer in the TA room doesn't really work, or if the fluorescent lighting in the microsoft lab is ridiculously noisy, or if people should be able to print in the microsoft lab directly from their laptops (if the problem is controlling access, put a password in it, as the engineering library and the rest of the campus does), or if and when many other problems like this occur, of course they are often reported to someone in the administration. The default result is that nothing happens. If we then go to a higher level, and complain, the default answer is either "Talk to the lower levels" (which has probably been done many times) or "I've talked to the lower levels and told them to fix it." (which is generally ignored, unless the higher levels actually follow up on the subject, but then again this is not likely because the higher levels have other things to worry about - no dishonesty implied).

  So, in summary, borderline polite ineffective bureaucratic answers are possible without dishonesty of lack of interest.

  That being put, I would like to point out that the purpose of my criticism is not being negative, bashing at random or merely venting my frustration. I mildly hope that calling attention to the worry that most criticism presented here will probably not lead to any changes will in itself bolster the desire of the administration to prove that this is not the case.

([Daisy Nguyen]  Thank you for the comments. I can answer your concerns.

 1. Clic temperature: There is the tempurature control in clic lab. However, when it was set so low, the humidity increased to an unacceptable level and many students complained about the humidity. It also created a unfavorable condition for the machines. Clic lab has 40 machines, if the temperature and humidity level are not appropriate for the machines, they will crash from humidity (diffusion onto memory and hard drive).

2. Printing to MRL and TA room printer form laptop: You can print to MRL and TA room printers by following the instruction in the CRF webpage below:

 http://www/~crf/printers/ipp.html

I monitor CRF tickets daily and I never saw a request for TA room printer or MRL without responding to  the request. If you or any students have any problem that you do not know who to ask, then simply send an email to crf@cs.columbia.edu. I'll assign the ticket to the appropriate person in the department.)

Any chance we can get cs.columbia.edu to redirect to www.cs.columbia.edu? Currently it is a broken link, but probably a really popular one.

(I'd say the same thing about columbia.edu -> www.columbia.edu, but I realize that's CUIT, not CS.)