Ben & Viv wish they were this dapper

Ben & Viv wish they were this dapper

Ben Makansi may have live-streamed the CCSC meeting last night, but Bureau Chief Joe Milholland was right up near the action, dutifully reporting on the council’s decisions and deliberations. This week, those decisions and deliberations include a CASV petition, constitution edits, and, yes, more of that goddamn statue.

At Sunday night’s Columbia College Student Council (CCSC) meeting, President Ben Makansi live-streamed the event and garnered, at one point, 300 views of the council’s discussions. A non-live stream of the event can be viewed here.

So what did CCSC do during this broadcasted meeting?

CASV Petition About TAs Found Responsible of Gender-Based Misconduct

Abby Porter, a representative from Coalition Against Sexual Violence (CASV) and next year’s VP of Policy, asked CCSC to support a resolution that advocated for barring students found responsible of gender-based from becoming TAs. After some discussion, CCSC passed the resolution, which is directed to the four undergraduate deans.

Porter argued for the resolution because it would be in line for the current policy for RAs, who cannot have been found responsible of gender-based misconduct, and she said that the privacy of TA applicants could be protected by having a neutral 3rd party review disciplinary records.

Makansi, who supports the resolution, brought up that some people may ask if the policy is fair to students who reformed themselves after committing less serious gender-based misconduct early in their college career. Porter responded that the resolution is not meant to be punitive but rather it is meant to protect student safety, and a blanket policy would best achieve that goal.

Constitutional Review

CCSC began its multi-part process of constitutional review on Sunday night. Their first step: figuring out which sections they wanted to propose changes to.

The proposed changes:

  • Not automatically giving the class VP the responsibility of being the class treasurer
  • Possibly making the attendance policy should be made more lenient
  • Merging the pre-professional rep and alumni affair rep, or just getting rid of one of those positions
  • Deleting the position of sandwich ambassador?
  • Not making the VP of Finance part of the Activities Board of Columbia (ABC)
  • Not making the academic affairs rep part of the Committe on Instruction and Committee on the Core and instead putting non-CCSC students in those positions
  • Changes to the preamble to include more language relating to Columbia’s mission statement and values
  • Filling vacated positions through a simple majority vote instead of a 2/3rds majority
  • Clarifying CCSC’s relations with the election board
  • Making the Inclusion and Equity Rep meet regularly with the Students of Color Coalition

Various council members will discuss these proposals over the week and have written proposals by Sunday April 17 (if they don’t have written proposals by then, CCSC won’t discuss changes on that subject).

The Statue Petition

Reclining Figure by Henry Moore will not be put in front of Butler before commencement, and it will not be put up at all in front of Butler if the respondents to a CCSC survey have their way. Just over 90% of respondents to the survey didn’t want the sculpture in front of Butler, and CCSC approved a resolution directed towards the administration about this opposition to the sculpture.

Alumni Affairs Rep Daniel Liss, involved in the creation of the resolution, said that people who took the survey had a variety of reasons for opposing the statue, but the resolution doesn’t deal with any of those reasons; it just states the large amount of opposition among students.

Heinrich said this resolution could be helpful when the senators discuss this issue with administrators (they’re working with PrezBo’s staff right now).

Updates:

  • Employers aren’t following CCE’s guidelines on job and internship offers, and 2017 President Ravi Sinha and Pre-professional Rep Chris George are looking into this issue.
  • Around 500 rolls of toilet paper have been picked up from Hartley Hospitality.
  • The University Senators are working to create a small group that will work with James McShane from Public Safety and EVP for Facilities and Operations David Greenberg to work with issues related to Bacchanal.
  • The Baked by Melissa study break on 4/20 will be on the Sun Dial.

The only way to announce new CCSC policy we’ll accept from here on out via LA Times archive