40 CommentsUS Presidential candidates form exploratory committees. CCSC presidential candidates, it seems, get quoted in the Spectator as being interested in the top job, as George Krebs and Michelle Diamond (basically) did in Friday’s issue. Because it’s never too early to engage in wild speculation (and because we’re already tired of Obama) Bwog presents this survey of the field.
CC ’09 president George Krebs: He came out of nowhere to oust the CC ’09 incumbents last year, and might ride that enthusiasm to the presidency a year before his time. Although the famous Krebs bear hug generates a significant degree of his support, the garrulous flesh-presser has a genuine interest in policy and a hard headed practicality that makes him more than a popular kid candidate. Plus, his e-mails are pure gold, and we can’t wait to see what he means by this quote: “I’m going to explode onto the scene in my own way should I decide to run.”
CC ’08 VP Michelle Diamond: Were there parties in CCSC, Michelle would probably make them work together and throw a kegger to celebrate. Her effectiveness is debatable–haven’t seen any sign of Project Athena yet–but there’s no denying that 100-watt smile. While she does get points for experience, she can’t quite match the Krebs soundbite. “It’s something that I really want to do,” Diamond said in her quasi-declaration. “I love being on student council and I have a lot of stuff I want to do … but I want to make sure that I’m 100 percent ready because it’s a huge responsibility.”
See more prospectives after the jump!
VP Finance Sarah Hwang, ’08: Why this race is so wide open. She would be President Flaxman’s designated successor, were she not graduating early.
AAA vice-chair Calvin Sun, ’08: He’s been through one elections cycle (on last year’s losing Evolution ticket) and might have ideas of how to do it better this time. He’s got awesome spiky hair. AND he’s a party promoter, and ran Cultureshock—best Glass House Rocks ever? Money quote: “Some people who don’t know me might not believe that because they think I’m a cocky motherfucking asshole. And I’m sorry, because sometimes I do act that way, but I’m really just trying to address the views of my close friends.”
CC ’08 President Neda Navab: Probably eyeing the senior class spot—there are benefits to kicking back and running Lerner Pub—but might decide to go for higher powers. Potential wrinkle: along with University Senator David Ali, she ran on her success in passing the Non-Recording Option, which should have meant that Bwog could’ve gotten an actual grade if we pass/failed a class and did ok. Haven’t heard much about that recently.
Dems VP and SGB Vice Chair Josh Lipsky, ’08: The Dems to CCSC pipeline could always come through for a second year—and it must be nice to hold the purse strings rather than take what you get (CCSC provides the bulk of SGB’s annual budget).
College Republicans Alumni Affairs Director and erstwhile candidate for CC ’08 president Matt Schoenfeld: Could very well challenge for ’08 president, having lost the spot as a sophomore and again against Navab/Diamond last year. Although he is in England for the semester. No rules against it, though…
University Senator Tiffany Davis, ’08: She’s got a two-year term if she wants to sit out campaign 2007, but fair game nonetheless.
Lindsey Lazopoulos: Almost beat Navab/Diamond last year as Schoenfeld’s VP. And is a cheerleader! And was on Playboy online!
Academic Affairs rep Alidad Damooei, ’09: This self-starter would be a good choice for an executive board ticket if he doesn’t decide to put one together on his own.
College Republicans president Chris Kulawik, ’08: Sure wouldn’t have to work for name recognition—and look how many politicians he’d have on his side! Could definitely bring some interesting speakers, but Bwog worries that he might just abolish student life fees and develop a system of free enterprise for student organizations.
Wayne Ting, ’06: Back for more?
Don’t see your favorite dark horse? Juicy campaign gossip we missed? Let us know: bwog@columbia.edu.
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40 Comments
@i second that “Why this race is so wide open. [Sarah Hwang] would be President Flaxman’s designated successor, were she not graduating early” what a loss…
@anonymous i think the best solution here is clear. make sarah hwang stay the extra year and have her be president. duh
@watcher Can’t we all just admit that what we all need is more (Eric) Wang?
@watcher http://bwog.net/publicate/index.php?page=post&article_id=1037
@i have an idea whoever has the most facebook pictures WINS
@Pictures This site provides an unfair advantage to those without pictures and does not give fair advertisement to each candidate. It is clear that those without pictures also have a lot less written about them. Why doesn’t bwog just pick the president for us?
@Anonymous Lots of SGB related names in speculation–Lipsky, Schoenfield, Kulawik, Ghosh. Kinda had to mention that.
@Eric Here’s a sleeper pick who I’m hearing wants to throw his name into the circle. Shu Ghosh- Co-President of Columbia University Development Inititative. I don’t know much about his platform but I know he’s honest.
@moph [incidentally, don’t rag too hard on novi. he’s getting his doctorate in education free and working incredibly hard in the administration. it’s not the paul owens route, but he deserves a lot more respect than he gets.]
@i retract my previous bashing of novi. if he’s here working on a degree for free that is a far more respectable situation. a man has to pay the bills after all.
@moph anonymous,
“seriously, if the council had any power besides merely suggesting to the administration things that should be common sense, you wouldn’t tout such small gains.”
that’s precisely the power the student council has. i’m setting myself up for heckling here, but being an administrator, i know very well that things that are common sense to students don’t necessarily occur to the administration. not because of any innate failure of the administration, but because of different experiences and points of view.
student council (particularly under michael novielli–the aforementioned novi and student council president for 2001-2003) has been relatively good at successfully pointing out common sense changes that improve student life. (it’s been bad, in contrast, at promoting the kind of systemic change that groups like SHOCC and SEEJ have fought for.)
again, i think the exercise is worthwhile. likewise, as limited as midnight mania, casino night, lerner pub, the study breaks, senior night, glass house rocks, and the various formals and beginning and end of the year parties are, if those student council folks weren’t doing them, there wouldn’t be many schoolwide social events at all.
i agree with you, though, that the campaign season is ridiculous. there’s no accountability, and whoever promises the most tends to get an advantage. bwog? anyone listening?
@why is bwog obsessed with mr. calvin sun?
people who know him think he’s a motherf’kin ahole and people who don’t know him think they’re among his “close friends”. he also acts like a 14 yr old all the time.
[cue calvin’s middle finger/typical response]
@Anonymous Hey man, I apologize if I ever disrespected you or anything as if i did, it would have been whole-heartedly unintentional and immature of me. We all make mistakes here…and I know I’ve made plenty. :-P
If you want, I’d be willing to meet in person and resolve any differences we might have had instead of communicating through this anonymous forum.
But if that’s too creepy for you, that’s okay with me too. :-)
C
@aaand i also retract my previous bashing of Calvin. Dunno why, ’cause i still think i’m right, but i’m retracting it. And Calvin reads bwog, confirmed.
@well... health insurance is required to attend columbia. one down.
@hey Bwog, is this all wild speculation or are there really any indications that all these people are thinking of running?
@hey obama didn’t announce anything for months and the press was all over him like hyenas devouring prime prey. bwog can be forgiven for a little hype and speculation. what else is a gossip blog good for?
@moph i’m not sure flexlife (Flex at local stores) and mutual swipe are the best ways of judging student council effectiveness.
administration said even during the wayne/anil/me election that flexlife couldn’t happen. SSN is used as an identifier on the Columbia Card, and so there’s a security problem. (believe it or not, we administrators are working on this. it’s hard and expensive, though.)
i’m not certain about this, but i don’t believe any student council executive boards have campaigned on mutual swipe. best i remember from (old) surveys, a majority of columbia students don’t support it. (that said, i doubt even a good student council could get it done; Public Safety is hard to work with.)
still: the library is open 24 hours, because of student council; columbia athletic events are free because of student council; percentage a is off the transcript for certain classes because of student council; printing pages aren’t capped at 600 copies/semester because of student council; there’s additional space for dance troupes, risers available in the auditorium, funding for summer internships, laundryview, etc etc. Even the recent financial aid changes owe a LOT to the work that Wayne, Novi, and Mik did over several years.
it’s all small stuff, of course, and i’m as annoyed as anyone the self-promotion and self-importance that comes with the territory (and, of course, as guilty of it as anyone: witness this comment), but a lot of people do mean well and put in a lot of time, and i think some good comes of it.
yeah, so there.
@hey matt Why are you “moph” instead of “mph” or just “mattharrison”?
@to reply to matt harrison.
your claims of ‘success’ for years of student council ‘work’ show how irrelevant the organization really is.
extra printing pages?
getting the library to stay open?
seriously, if the council had any power besides merely suggesting to the administration things that should be common sense, you wouldn’t tout such small gains.
and sorry, but laundryview is the biggest waste of money ever.
i hope though you don’t get swallowed by the columbia administration like novi. get out while you still can.
i mean, i saw novi drinking on my floor last year. how pathetic is that?
@eh? who’s novi? and why isn’t getting the library open 24/7 an achievement, given our evil administration. common sense around here (especially when no other school has adopted such a move) is a victory indeed.
@novi was the student council president before matt harrison and miklos and served for two terms. he is class of 2003 but still works for columbia and hangs out in dorms on occassion.
@hello Hey: what the hell do you expect the student council/student government to do? Change the world? End poverty? Invent a perpetual motion machine? Or even something relatively more minor like change the drinking age or stop manhattanville?
Goddamn. I mean, seriously. The purview of student government is student life. For many Columbia students, few things could be more important than Butler’s hours. What in the hell do you expect, a cure for cancer?
@what i expect is the power to make real change on issues in a timely manner. i certainly don’t expect them to change the world, but i think the fact that they must
fight so hard and so long to get incremental change on minor points is exactly the problem.
students here are still treated (by the administration) like a bunch of idiot children. now granted, some of them are, but the very least the thoughts and opinions of our elected leaders should at least be respected.
@SHAM GOVERNMENT! Student government is just another wing of the administration. It’s a carrot meant to let us think we have a shot at achieving meaningful changes in our time at Columbia. Wrong!
Columbia makes changes when IT wants to (remember FlexLife? AHAHAHAHAHA.)
Remember- The Columbia Administration has the ultimate filibuster- we’ll all be gone in four years anyway!
@xman sham government! you just watch this semester as ccsc finds a solution for victory in iraq and brings you universal health care!
@why not ccsc, bring the troops home now!
@!!! michelle is not only the best choice out of the potential candidates that you profiled, bwog, she is the best choice period. she works harder than anyone else and cares more that i thought possible. she has my vote running away, and this krebs kid ought to try to get a spot on her ticket. his cockiness will backfire. if anyone since novi could have won as a sophomore it was wayne ting. and he didnt win. either time. the spectr of sophomore self-assuredness
@aha well that explains it, then we should all vote for her and she will win the election. thanks for clarifying.
@old geezer speaking of novi… he beat another rising junior, not a rising senior…. and ting… 3rd times the charm, right?
@honestly no one cares about so-called ‘policy work.’ all that is is pathetic plebicites from the students that affect minimal change for our lives as students.
cases in point. mutual columbia-barnard swipe access has not been resolved after my four years here despite it being on numerous platforms. nor has using flex for local stores. nor has the changed pass/fail policy actually been implemented. etc. etc.
@..... student councils achieve nothing. their ‘presidents’ and ‘executive boards’ get elected simply so they can pad their resumes.
@Good idea Bwog! I’d like a system where clubs would have to compete for student life fees and every student past freshman year can designate what percentage of his or her student life fees goes to which club.
@hmmm? keep your eyes open for more info on the non-recording option coming soon
@anonymous tipster... Some of George’s accomplishments in the article were slightly exaggerated if anyone wants to do some research. To get real policy work accomplished it takes time.
@anonymous coward this is ridiculous – the first two will be this year’s candidates, barring some 3rd party thing like happened with matthew harrison and Pangea… wow, that was an awkward election.
either way, should prove to be interesting, but krebs’ age will be a huge detractor as will his inexperience. while diamond has not accomplished anything of note, she has experience and understands how the council runs, and that will come with some respect. krebs is a cartoon of himself to most, and that will also seriously hurt him.
@N.N. I’m going to tell my children that if they don’t behave, Matt Schoenfeld will come to visit them in the night and they will never be heard from again.
@Hmmm People are dying of starvation in the world and you are worried about which useless student will when which useless spot on some useless board that only a bunch of other useless students care about only because they ran for said useless spot at some point?
@For shame People are dying of starvation in the world and you are commenting on a student blog?
@firstly that krebs fellow looks and acts like a total doofus. yes, i used the word doofus, which i have never before used in reference to a columbia student, but this is kid clearly fits the bill.
michelle diamond has my vote with her winning smile and generally cuteness.
though, if wayne ting does run, i will vote for him.