It’s coming! (Hopefully)

Every Tuesday, Bwog brings you a recap of the previous night’s Engineering Student Council (ESC) meeting. This week brought updates to everyone’s favorite defunct Bwog sister website, WikiCU, as well as a vote on carbon neutrality and an exciting new cross-Ivy initiative. Luckily, SEAS-adjacent Deputy Editor Zack Abrams stepped in to cover it.

Carbon Neutrality Resolution

After a short friendly amendment period to clarify a few phrases, ESC passed a resolution encouraging Columbia to commit to 100% carbon neutrality by the year 2030, noting Columbia’s previous commitments to divest from thermal coal and its strong earth science research. The resolution passed by a large margin, with no votes against and only two abstentions. Jokes about the writing ability of SEAS students were made.

Inter-Ivy International Student Council

One idea proposed to the Council was an Ivy League International Student Council which would better tackle issues that international students face at the eight Ivy League institutions. While not specifically related to Engineering, board members were encouraged to reach out to contacts at Dartmouth and UPenn who may be interested in representing the international students of their school. No word on whether this would be done through in-person meetings or meme battles, though.

Alumni Association Dinner

The last Alumni Association Dinner of this year will take place at fancy UWS restaurant Café Luxembourg on April 26th. The Alumna has been involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency, which will be the theme of the dinner, though one excited ESC member said “I would go just for the restaurant.”

From the President

ESC interim president Ben Barton (’18) discussed some ongoing issues, including a problem in the mailroom that led to certain students not getting notifications for packages. He also floated an idea to implement package delivery service directly to dorms on campus for qualifying students with disabilities. Finally, Barton mentioned that CUIT is updating the UI for course evaluations and hopefully including a progress bar, though ESC may send out a survey in order to gain more of an idea of how the UI can be improved from the students themselves.

Student Life

Richa Gode (’19), interim VP Student Life, talked about upcoming events including the activities fair for Days on Campus this Friday from 12:30-3:30pm. Gode also mentioned the possibility of late night activities for days on campus: a mini version of “escape the room” is one possibility. Finally, Gode mentioned setting up a meeting with the Food Bank next week to organize a food drive before finals, when food insecurity can affect many students.

Finance (including WikiCU updates)

Ria Garg (’20), interim VP Finance, mentioned needing to decide internal spending for next year along with transitioning control of the finance website to someone new before the person in control of it now graduates.

As far as WikiCU, everyone on ESC is on board with managing WikiCU and transitions are set up; now there are 4 admin accounts for each of the student councils. However, due to security issues (including captchas that don’t display text or stop the user from advancing) the site is not ready for business just yet. However, ESC will publicize the generation of new accounts when they’re ready. Right now, the only way to create an account is to score an invite.

Potpourri

The 2020 apparel is on its way after a short delay.

The recent mental health town hall produced great student input, as the students felt they could speak their mind without administrators present. Most students feel that the Jed committee is too opaque and have felt discouraged after being turned away from joining steering committees. A meeting has been set up with Scott Wright for April 17th to debrief these matters of the mental health coalition.

KCLEA awards were given out.

 

That’s it for ESC coverage this week, see you next Monday!