Last night, ESC debated whether Backyard Barbecue, one of the largest council-run events of the year, should be continued. President Chris Elizondo explained that the event, which is “food-centric,” may not provide as much “bang for [the council’s] buck” as other possible student events. Sophomore Council President Mary Byers said that students often get annoyed by the event’s long lines, especially when compounded with the shutdown of the dining halls that makes it impossible for students with late classes to eat. Additionally, VP Intergroup Narayan Subramanian expressed his view that “throwing food at students does not sponsor community” because students simply eat and leave. However, Senior Council President Amanda Tan said the barbecue has been “the highlight of [her] spring semester” for the last three years, and she opposed the cancellation of the event.
President Elizondo explained that the barbecue would only be canceled if three of the four councils (ESC, CCSC, GSSC, SGA) voted to cancel the event. ESC voted to form an exploratory committee to investigate if the barbecue should be continued, and if not, how the extra funds could be allocated. However, the councils will need to make a decision quickly—if a decision is not reached in approximately two weeks, Dining will schedule a shutdown and the event will continue as planned (yes, Dining schedules shutdowns that far in advance).
Other highlights of the meeting include:
- The freshman ESC parties—DemocraSEAS, Fu Crew, and Fu Yeah—officially stopped campaigning yesterday at midnight, and voting begins today. Surely this will also be the last of the party-name salacious wordplay, right?
- ESC has finalized the updated senate elections timeline: ESC Senator campaigning begins on Wednesday, Sept. 22 and ends on Tuesday, Sept. 28. Though the delay means that the senator will not be chosen before the CCSC/ESC Retreat, it successfully increased awareness about the election. There are now 5 candidates, a notable increase from the single candidate running previously.
- 2010 Class Representative Nathan Levick reported that Casino Night planning has begun. He commented that he has much in common with his CCSC counterpart—like him, she was “forced against her will to take [the] position,” so meetings between the two are expected to go well.
- The Engineering Student Council’s website is back up… after someone unplugged it during NSOP.
- Besides the website, the council announced that its new server is also ready for use. The council purchased an extra server for Columbia groups that require more advanced web services—such as streaming—at the end of last year. Any group can present their website idea to the council and receive web hosting. The server currently hosts the 99columbians project.
Photo courtesy of TheCulinaryGeek’s Flickr.
8 Comments
@disillusioned Agree! Either improve the event dramatically or drop it entirely. Maybe have lots of different food stations around campus with separate lines. Or just redistribute the money to student groups, which put on by far the best events on campus (with or without free food).
Also, there’s no reason for the dining halls to be closed for dinner for any event…that’s just silly.
@Anonymous they close the halls because it requires lots of dining and catering staff.
@anon Narayan is the Vice President Intergroup, not Vice President Student Life.
@Anonymous …highlight of your spring semester? for serious?
@Anonymous if that is the highlight of her spring semester, then she needs to go out more. christ.
I think that they should have a huge university sponsored football/basketball game tailgate. With REAL barbecue from Kansas City.
@Umm we have football and basketball teams for that.
@To say nothing of the “tradition” of CU students throwing apple cores at Barnard during commencement…
@Actually Throwing food at [NYU] students is an excellent way to foster community.