Bwog’s Fu Foundation Bureau Chief Tony Gong reports on yesterday’s very special (positively Clintonian!) ESC meeting.
Considering the sometimes tedious nature of ESC meetings, last night’s was one for the books. And not just any books, like Goosebumps or The Giver (just to name a few… I could go on). Last night, not one, not three, but two council members were formally indicted for impeachment review! To my comfort, the expected bizarreness of discussion about beef dinners and secretive ESC operations made appearances as well.
Highlights from this first portion of the meeting included a brief introduction to the new CourseWorks website from the senate. This new interface, known as Sakai, will feature Podcasts and allow you to physically drag files onto a portfolio from your desktop, which is obviously very necessary.
Next, the non-senior council members listened with fervent jealousy as Class of 2008 reps delineated their upcoming class events: Class Dinner, Forty Days, booze cruises, etc. The key moment was President Eash Cumarasamy’s excited update on his much-loved beef option for the Class Dinner: “It’s grilled filet mignon, with mushroom sauce. I tasted it today, it’s wonderful.” Eash submitted no comment regarding why meals for the dinner were being prepared several weeks in advance.
Contrastingly, plans from the underdogs of Class of 2011 were not as pleasantly received. President Kamal Yechoor proudly announced their upcoming “luau in the pool,” to which baffled council members queried: “In the pool, like in the water?” Kamal, with his ego damaged, abdominal muscles tensed, and a peculiar look on his face, diverted this simple inquiry, and responded “I’ll answer questions about that in the end.” Then he winked oh-so-surreptitiously in my direction, if I recall correctly. Some serious subtext was afoot, but I was too busy eating an apple to care.
But the remainder of the meeting, impeachment reviews, was not to be missed, even for the most crispy and juicy of Granny Smiths. The controversy reached council level when General Studies Student Council SGA Liason Rajat Roy sent an egregiously accusatory e-mail, which called for a “bounty hunt” of Senator Amit Bedi to their Sigma Epsilon fraternity ($2 for every photo taken of Amit). Rajat had been offended by Amit’s blatant neglect of Senator duties: failure to attend meetings and participate in votes. Although Rajat sent out a subsequent apologetic e-mail, the council deemed Rajat’s initial e-mail inappropriate council behavior. So in an ironic twist worthy of a Harry Potter ending, both Rajat and Amit were reviewed for impeachment.
After some weighty discussion, perhaps a bit too sensitive for this humble writer to repeat, the impeachment against Rajat failed with 11 votes against, 3 votes for, and 2 abstentions. Rajat gave an unnecessary statement after the news: “Wow that was an emotional moment for me. I really believe in responsibility to those who vote you in.” Amit’s inactivity, on the other hand, was too serious to overlook, and the council voted unanimously for his impeachment. But there will be no review for his removal from office! In what will probably be the most dramatic thing I’ll witness all week, unless my roommate loses his cell phone again, Amit sent a text message to President Liz Strauss right before the vote was announced, and officially declared his resignation: “just tell them i resign.”
My daily intake for theater sufficiently met, I exited Satow so that the council members could end the night with their weekly viewing of Homeward Bound, or closed “constitutional review” meetings, or whatever they’re calling it now. I know they’re watching Homeward Bound.
21 Comments
@hmm 1. none of those things have anything to do with SGA.
2. we all know it’s you, raj.
@if by no job you mean the new designs and implementation of SEAS Shotglasses, hats, mugs, hoodies, shirts, sitting on policy committee, sitting on co-sponsorship committee and actually saying shit rather than just sitting there.
@err someone should ask raj about the great job he did with sga
@... if by that you mean no job?
@watch the election feeds, raj is totally that guy. comes off as extremely unlikeable he does.
@hmm ccsc news is far juicier than esc news. didn’t krebs eat a child the other day? or did alidad perform more open heart surgery on a squirrel?
@so Amit Wrote posts #8 and #12 if that is actually him.
@Dude... The point was that Amit had TWO years for his term. Meaning he had a FULL YEAR LEFT!
That’s Why Rajat Called for his impeachment.
@wtf was the point we’ve got a like four weeks left of the semester… way to be on ur toes esc.. should have impeached his ass much sooner
@Hey I think we can all agree though that ESC is a fucking travesty. I thought GSSC had reached new heights of fascism with the Lord-God Hightower’s situation, but ESC really takes the cake. You guys should be fucking ashamed of yourselves. We need to really instill some checks & balances, transparency and credibility to Columbia’s political system. Start by democratizing ESC for God’s sake.
@clarification the vote was 11 against, 10 for, 3 abstentions for the impeachment of rajat. read the spec.
@OK well That guy is CLEARLY a massive douche, and I feel bad that the person who was impeached was on medical leave, but really if you can’t do the job you were elected to do, for any reason, you should just step down.
@agreed Vote brian pan for senate!
@Agreed again! Brain Pan for Senate!
@yeah, that email is ABSURD. Holy crap.
@WOW all that for a stupid student council position?
@clarification2 from my understanding Amit was impeached since he is not a SEAS student this semester and therefore cannot sit on council.
@Oh uh! Sounds to me like amir deserves another chance. Too bad esc isn’t elected and probably wont be held accountable for generally sucking.
@I love these updates. Gong is going to go places if he keeps this up. But whether he is fame-bound or homeward-bound is a question too deep for this forum.
@rajat is... Esc liaison to the sga, not gssc
@tool bounty hunt? wow