Just a little too much reflection, maybe.

ESC is dead, long live ESC—or something like that. Yes, this year’s council has now passed on, and whether they were lucky enough to extend their stay on council or were forced to give up the ghost, all council members had a grave disposition. ESC Bureau Chief Finn Klauber reports on their final vote and their reflections on the last year. 

Yesterday evening, as gathering clouds darkened the evening sky, this year’s ESC met for the final time. The dominating issue for ESC members, besides (for some) surrendering and passing on their positions, was the creation of the International Student Representative. Debate was extended to newly elected ESC members, although only those still sitting could actually vote.

As the main proponents of creating this position summed up for the newly elected, this position would create a specific representative for international ESC students, who face specific issues not encountered by those with American citizenship. This includes financial aid, visas and access to companies which sponsor them, and NSOP/ISOP.

As a newly inducted councilman unknowingly reiterated, Columbia already has an Office of Multicultural Affairs which, ostensibly, facilitates the experiences of international students. Furthermore, international students already have the International Students Advisory Board (ISAB) as well as the International Students and Scholars Office. The proposers countered, however, saying that this position would work with both those bodies to represent the interests of international SEAS students—particularly at ISAB meetings.

After a final name change, the Representative for International Student Issues was formally voted on and successfully created. The position will open up with elections next semester.

With this vote, this year’s ESC members officially ended their council tenure. In a final activity, council members went around the room stating the thing that they were most proud of doing this year in ESC. Some responses were “a lot of event planning,” “working with Columbia Space Initiative,” “increasing accessibility for free pads and tampons,” and “I can’t believe Bacchanal happened. That’s really amazing.”

Updates:

• ESC met with Housing Production (Facilities) last week. They discussed disabilities access for Mathematics—it’s apparently a really tough building to add access to but they’re working on it—, the success of the Emergency Housing Plan, and a new focus group to discuss student woes/concerns with Room Selection and the Housing Lottery.
• The 2017 cardigans and the 2019 sweaters finally arrived! They’ll be distributed this week in Lerner, cash only for the cardigans. They look pretty cool, and the class of 2019 was given $25 in store credit for the company’s lateness. Great.

Hey I wrote an essay about this guy via Franz Caucig/Public Domain