As previously reported by The Chronicle on Nov. 9, 2009, a student-planned arts and media summit will be held in April.  The focus of the summit is to discuss how activists use the media as a tool to convey a messages to the next generation of media makers.

Summit organizer and senior film and video major Kevin Gosztola partnered with the college’s Student Government Association and Critical Encounters to raise awareness about the event on campus.

The two-day summit will feature discussions and workshops focusing on media makers and activist organizations. Implementation of a shield law, a law that gives reporters some means of protection against being forced to disclose confidential information or sources in state court will be covered, along with using art to promote democracy and environmental concerns such as mountaintop removal in West Virginia.

The summit’s keynote  speaker is Greg Palast,  a BBC journalist  who  has  investigated the Bush family and Exxon Valdez,  and  worked as an undercover reporter for The Observer to uncover British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Lobbygate scandal.

Gosztola said he is happy SGA decided to subsidize the summit with a $3,300 sponsorship.

SGA Vice President of Communications Sarah Luckett said the criteria for funding is based on whether the event is student-led and beneficial for the student body. Luckett added that events sponsored by faculty, staff or the administration are not funded.

“Generally, you have a better shot if it’s a student organization as opposed to individual students,” Luckett said. “But we encourage if [students] have an issue to come and talk, and if it requires funding  we’ll see what we can do.  If  it  will benefit the  student body, then it’s definitely something we’d be  willing to  look into.”

The first day of the summit will be a faculty-run event. However, the compensation from the SGA will be put toward the following day’s event, which was planned by Gosztola and looks at the issues through a student lense.

Joe  Willis,  vice president of finance for SGA,  said the organization has been  working  with the college’s internal affairs to develop new ways of deciding what is appropriate to spend money on.

“Internal affairs has been spending a lot of time working to develop a new set of hard rules that we can always reference,” Willis said. “We are doing this because it will help better clarify to staff or students why we can or can’t fund an event or any issue that is brought to us. A lot of people don’t know where money’s coming from, and it comes from the students and goes directly back to them.”

Willis added that the summit was approved for compensation because it was a unique event that was geared toward students.

“The event’s direct focus is on students’ point of view,” Willis said. “It’s unique in the aspect that it will be reaching a vast majority of students at Columbia.”

Gosztola said the funding from the SGA significantly affected the nature of the event. He added the event would have been scaled down due to lack of finances.

“This would not take place if we didn’t have funding from SGA,” Gosztola said. “Without SGA funding, you wouldn’t be able to tell we were doing anything that was really ground breaking. We are actually putting on something that Columbia needs that has never happened before, so I’m excited about that.”