I might come back and add a SEAS logo somewhere in the picture.

As every week, Bureau Chief (and Internal Editor) Finn Klauber reports on the activities and goings-on of the Engineering Student Council. Not much has changed since last week, so get ready for Update Mania 2: ESC Boogaloo.

Just as in last week’s ESC meeting, the discussion section of last night’s ESC session was deemed “off the record”—though it may have had something to do with President Aida Lu’s meeting with the Committee on Instruction. Regardless, this week’s post will, once again, take the form of updates.

President Aida Lu

President Lu attended a meeting with Deans Kachani and Kromm, CUIT, and various graduate school reps regarding “Third Level Domains for Pan University Reps.” In essence, instituting a “third level domain” will allow recognized student groups to request and maintain a website, supported and run by CUIT. This issue rose to prominence because “[there was] no one clear path for any new student group requesting a website from Columbia,” according to President Lu. ESC will apparently take advantage of this, so as to not spend student activities fees  on website maintenance.

President Lu also discussed the new student group adjudication process, a new panel which will oversee student group violations under the Student Conduct and Community Standards. This was originally an “admin driven process,” but will be implemented in the same manner as the Greek Judicial Board. That means the board will not review internal violations of group constitutions. As for ESC’s representative, the council elected VP Policy Zoha Qamar to sit on the new board.

VP Policy Zoha Qamar

VP Qamar attended the Mental Health Task Force this week, where a student gave a presentation regarding the “media’s role in labeling certain violence as a result of mental illness,” specifically regarding the mass shooting in Las Vegas. They also discussed the role of Columbia offices in mitigating stress, finding that the Center for Student Advising sees the greatest discrepancy in student opinion regarding their interactions with their advisors. The Task Force also discussed Summer financial aid at peer institutions.

The VP also attended the meeting of the Gender Based Misconduct Prevention Task Force, headed by Suzanne Goldberg. This Task Force focused on updates to the Sexual Respect Initiative, and engagement in Columbia’s graduate and undergraduate schools. Qamar claimed that the Task Force just gave lots of data which was “difficult to parse through.”

VP Finance Saarthak Sarup

VP Sarup addressed a question he received during this week’s project grants review, regarding IP ownership of ESC sponsored projects. Apparently, it is unclear whether students who use ESC funding will hold the IP, or whether Columbia will retain some rights. VP Sarup should have a response at the next meeting.

University Senator Izzet Kebudi

Senator Kebudi reported that the Quality of Life survey, which was released too close to finals last semester to receive enough responses, is being relaunched next week. They’re finalizing the gift list as well, which will hopefully include free Shake Shack.

More interestingly, Senator Kebudi reported that the Office of University Life is forming an “events council” which will meet for the first time, with Kebudi acting as a main representative, in late Fall or early Spring. The goal is to—literally—”create new traditions” for Columbia, and they hope to add three or four more events to take place during the academic year. This announcement led to a few questions posed to the Senator, who supposed that the University formed this new council because “community morale is essential.” He also mentioned Orgo Night in regards to the “events council,” claiming “will there be a replacement? I don’t know.” When asked if there were any updates on Orgo Night’s forced exodus from Butler 209, Senator Kebudi responded that “Orgo Night will probably be outside Butler again.” Typical.

Miscellaneous Updates:

  • JCCC, the jointly run funding committee, gave the sorority Alpha Chi Omega $816 for “emergency facilities funding” for their upcoming Runway Warriors show.
  • Student Life now has room for 800 shirts and 2000 stickers in their storage space, thanks to last Friday’s free shirt (and coffee) giveaway. Thanks for the great IEOR shirt, by the way.
  • The Class of 2018 Council is forming a list of potential class day speakers, announcing that students will vote on “themes,” from which a list of names will be submitted to the Deans for invitations.

Bad breakdancing movies which spawned cringeworthy memes via Rhindle the Red / Fair Use