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In response to widespread concerns over access to the ROTC survey planning meetings that have been going on amongst student groups, the next meeting will most likely be moved to Friday, and be declared open to all groups, pending a vote from the current coalition of group and council representatives.
The move was pushed for by CCSC VP for Policy Adil Ahmed, who, in an email to student council and group leaders, said that the councils want to be “completely transparent.” At last Wednesday’s meeting, representatives from Everyone Allied Against Homophobia tried to enter the closed meeting. They were asked to leave by representatives there, and EAAH handed out a statement at the end of the meeting.
In addition, the university senators who had previously been involved were specifically kept off of the email announcing the new proposal. In the email, Ahmed claimed that the action was because “the Senators are primarily there to advise us…” Despite long-time speculation that senators were the principal supporters of an ROTC survey, then, it seems that the councils (or at least CCSC) are controlling the survey process. Bwog will continue to keep you updated as more details are confirmed.
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21 Comments
@sam apparently anonymous hateration is alive and well in the Bwog commentaries. I respect Adil for learning from this process, and trying to improve on things. The intention to open the decision making process has been there from the beginning, and the ccsc folks seem to be listening to criticism and learning from it.
@hmmm Still trying to understand why the senators were pushed out, I smell some internal tension…
I am glad that Adil is trying to take action here, but it is so important that dialogue is there between the senators and council members because, as many of you said it, if they don’t work together, the entire USenate will shelve this matter to avoid any backlash…
@Nice to see Adil stepping up to try deal with some of the intransparency he has caused, despite his best intentions. I hope Krebs&co realise that Adil is a huge part of why their party got elected in the first place, and it’s good to see him finally living up to these expectations. I say this as coming from one of said vested” groups.
@Adil Ahmed is out of control.
@ok its clear that Adil is just on a power trip. he feels like he needs to control every aspect of an policy initiative that takes into place. Not including the senators in his email was a bad move on his part.
@Senator Palpatine I think it’s funny how serious they’re taking this- considering that the University Senate, the only body on campus with the policy making power to address the issue already dealt with it, with decisive and forceful opposition coming from Brinkley and Bollinger. Bwog – try seeking a comment from Brinkley on this initiative. Should be interesting. Anyway back to my point – in light of this fact, isn’t it funny that the Senators (aka the people with real power) are being called advisors (they are in fact not members of the Council per se, but if you get the drift here, the Councils don’t have any real power.)
In case you’re wondering why Senate elections are so pitiful in light of the real impact the Senate has on University affairs, it’s because students graduate. The faculty and administrators on the Senate can ride out just about every student initiative by burying it in committee feasability studies and then shelving them for ‘later discussion’. See e.g. Agora.
http://www.wikicu.com/Agora
@yeah i agree. here is a prime example of krebs and ahmed stroking one another to pretend they are more important than they actually are. even if (and this is a big if) an overwhelming majority of the undergrad population votes in the now “poll” about NROTC, the Senate will just shelve the matter until everyone graduates and has forgotten.
case closed.
@Senator Palpatine I know announce the creation of a new Columbia Empire where the ROTC will serve to defend our gates!
@CU ROTC gone viral It doesn’t appear that shelving the issue and waiting for students to graduate is an effective strategy given that the strategy failed once already. All the students responsible for the 2002-2005 ROTC campaign graduated by 2007. See their history: http://advocatesforrotc.org/columbia/history2006.html
The current ROTC initiative grew from grassroots independently. The most interesting feature of the current initiative, compared to the 2002-2005 ROTC campaign, is that the 2005 advocacy was composed primarily of cadets, officer candidates, and military veterans. This time, none of the students responsible for the ROTC initiative have military backgrounds.
It would appear that ROTC at Columbia has gone viral and crossed over both student generations and student demographic groups. The university senate is going to need a different strategy to deal with ROTc.
Perhaps this time, compromise with ROTC, rather than petulant condemnation, is the better path for Columbia to take.
@Whatever happens with the councils, at least the Senate understands the real implications of letting a fundamentally discriminatory organization on campus. I’m glad this shitshow isn’t going to matter in the long run.
@Rajat May be bad at dealing with people and campus politics, but at least he understands the senate process and history, unlike other politicians
Pressure to open up meeting came from all fronts
@wrong it was someone not affiliated with any group or governing board who requested to open up the meeting…
@wrong Reliable sources tell me that pressure from groups and then governing boards (not sure about ABC) eventually caused the councils to buckle.
@SGB and ABC probably pushed them to do it.
@Adil had the idea to open up the meeting to everyone? That seems implausible, given how many groups pushed him to do it.
@lol pushed out…that’s pushing it.
@Stop knocking the senators. It was Adil’s call to throw out EAAH last time because he had only invited some groups and had denied others. He called it fairness but it was his bad call.
@... I’m glad Adil is being transparent and taking charge. It was simply DISGRACEFUL for them to kick EAAH out of the meeting but it seems that the council is now moving in the right direction.
But, bwog, let’s be clear and not blame ALL those senators…… one bad apple doesn’t necessarily spoil the whole group…
@well he must have been in the meeting, so clearly he had something to do with them being kicked out…sounds like krebs’ habit of taking credit for others’ work has brushed off.
@... I guess i should rescind my earlier praise of Adil… i thought he was solving a problem but apparently he caused the problem that he solved..
Most of these posts seem like they are coming from different vested insiders from different groups on campus……. they all seem to be pointing to Adil though strangely enough
Bwog, I would be interested to get a sense of how the allegiances are among student groups and student leaders on teh ROTC issue… from this post it already seems that there is some tension between councils and their senators… is there any tension between councils and governing boards? I’m interested to see how the politics are playing out behind the scenes……
@... i less-than-three transparency, but does this sound like a disaster waiting to happen to anyone else?