The latest from the (now slightly more dangerous) world of student government.
ESC: Rather than bask in the victorious silly-string attack on CCSC at the latter’s board meeting, ESC focused on electing a new VP for Policy. Two candidates ran for the position – sophomore Ben Yi and junior Eric Hirani, who has served as the Alumni Affairs representative. Both candidates presented themselves as informed students and experienced in pushing policies in student government, but, after a discussion, the council had too many abstentions to elect either candidate, and, in a stunning upset, neither candidate was elected. However, sources on council explained to Bwog after the meeting that “policy committee can function without a VP policy, and as of now, it is… Everyone is still working on their initiatives.” Basically, the council does not plan to fill the vacancy.
UPDATE: A representative from ESC’s Executive Board contacted Bwog to clarify that the council will still hold another election and will still seek to fill the position, though another ESC source told Bwog it is unlikely the council will find an individual with enough experience to jump in and effectively run the policy committee for the next two months.
CCSC: After falling victim to ESC’s vicious attack, CCSC cleaned itself up and got down to further discussion of how to address the Study Day crunch for future academic calendars. The council remains undecided on which specific steps to take, though – options include restructuring Election Day weekend, shifting around the semester start date, and holding exams on weekends. VP for Finance Nuriel Moghavem also formally introduced the application for Individual Funding Grants, for students to pursue their own individual projects. Applications are due on March 1, with CCSC publicizing the grants up until then.
– JCD & SVZ, photo via Flickr
8 Comments
@Nuriel Moghavem We will be doing additional outreach in the coming weeks, but the link and information for those grants can be found below:
http://tinyurl.com/projectgrant
Feel free to email me at nm2374@columbia.edu with any additional questions you may have on the process or the grant itself.
@ha thats because gs students arent real students what did you expect an active gssc?
@New GS Student Have to say that I am beginning to agree with you on that one!
@New GS Student If you want to see something pathetic, on the other hand, take a look at the GSSC website! Looks like they just threw in the towel a long long time ago. Not sure what my favorite part is. The latest weekly bulletin that is from November of 2009? Or the fact that they don’t even bother posting meeting minutes (or at least not in any place that anyone can find.) Maybe they deserve the credit for at least acknowledging how irrelevant they are and not pretending otherwise.
Sad.
@"I am light blue" I looked up the CCSC website; historically, they have a iffy web presence, but this latest iteration actually looks good. They still have minutes, so there’s a modicum of history and responsibility being maintained. But seriously – iamlightblue.com? “We bleed light blue”?? Who the fuck came up with that?
@Silly I’m glad that the world of student government is so insular at Columbia that they pull wacky gags on each other like silly-string attacks. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that this has something to do why no one here cares about student government- 90% of everyone in student government is buddy-buddy with each other but also fairly out-of-touch with the campus on a whole, since the majority of the student government is represented by one clique of people.
Not that I don’t love silly string, don’t misunderstand me!
@your name must be Ben or Eric.
@Who's going to be CC class day speaker? Rumors?