Bwog reports from the first CCSC meeting of the year.

Like the first day of class, the first CCSC meeting of the year had little in the way of substance. Instead, just as that first class gives students a chance to see how a teacher will run proceedings, the mostly new CCSC members (only 8 members returned from last year’s board) saw new President Sue Yang and her executive board’s new style in action. At first, everything seemed as slow-going as last year: the long round of introductions included “Dares for the Year,” while for the upperclassmen’s dares included marathons, actually doing class reading, and multiple promises to start dancing and vegetarianism, while the prospective first-year candidates in attendance received appreciative chuckles for promises of “going to the gym five days a week,” “mastering the subway system,” and “swimming in one of the Low fountains.”

But after the typical icebreaker, the rest of the meeting suggested that, if appearances are any guide, this year’s CCSC will certainly be a leaner student government, with a large dose of corporate can-do slogans. On the more painful side, for example, the exec board’s motto for the year will be ACE (Action Collaboration Engagement), a slogan that made even Bwog’s inner summer intern cringe. Perhaps even more painful for the board members was a new ban on electronics, which provided great amusement to (the mercifully spared) Bwog as various veteran CCSC members struggled to come up with non-electronic ways of procrastinating after years of being able to just check their Blackberries, and prospective first-year candidates noticeably tightened anytime a phone rang.

But the exec board moved with an almost-manic energy, bouncing from item to item with a quickness that would make The West Wing envious. Paper agendas have been done away with, and the basic emphasis will be on “moving quickly, and we’ll be talking quickly as well.” Yang promised 50 minute meetings each week, much to the noticeable relief of those already struggling without wifi.

As mentioned before, actual policy discussion was light: Director of Technology Reuben Doestch presented on one of the council’s project’s for the year: a class portal, with information ranging from class news to course reviews to “those gym schedules you can never find anywhere.” Yang also introduced the monthly themes around which programming will be planned (“Community Building” this month, “Physical Spaces in October,” etc.). But otherwise the meeting went by without  And like clockwork, the meeting ended at 8:47 pm, though not before the Executive Board passed out Meyers-Brigg personality tests to the rest of the board. Bwog, on the other hand, prefers ink blots.

– JCD