your eager exec board

This year, Bwog’s keepin’ the administration and student leaders on their toes. CCSC gets a boatload of your money, and we think it’s important to keep tabs on their progress. But before we get into the nitty gritty, magical muckraker and philosopher queen, Sarah Ngu, introduces the exec board.

What is it?

Columbia College Student Council (CCSC) is an umbrella of student councils from every class, with the “executive board” on the top which focuses on policies, funding and programming for the entire Columbia College. They collaborate with the other undergraduate schools, like CE SEAS, BC and GS. There are four committees, which are open to anyone who is willing but are mainly staffed by members of student council: communications, finance, campus life and policy.

The policy committee is the “meat” of CCSC in that they advocate for changes in policies and work with administration to ensure the implementation of those policies. It’s helpful to think of Council as the official voice of the students to the administration. Past policies include easing of traffic at mail services, gender neutral housing, Good Samaritan policy, financial aid policy reform, etc.

CCSC’s purview is limited to undergraduates, which means it cannot handle issues that are important to undergraduates but that also affect graduates, such as moving the academic calendar so it doesn’t end right before Christmas or publicizing course evaluations — those issues are bumped up to the Senate, a representative body of all the schools in the University which traditionally operates quite slowly.

Who’s in the executive board?

President: Aki Terasaki — he is generally known for negotiating compromises and his work ethic. Fun fact: he appeared in Jeopardy as a kid. He’s been in council since his freshman year and also has headed up Columbia Japan Society. It remains to be seen if he will bring the revolutionary vision that some hope this year’s president will have.

VP of Policy: Ryan Cho — a member of ROTC, he seems fairly level-headed and confident in steering the direction of the committee. The changes he plans to bring about in how the policy committee operates (more on this soon!) are a long time coming. Plus, he is an ABC rep, an RA in Hogan, and a brother at Lambda Phi Epsilon.

VP of Campus Life: Jasmine Senior — she has an extraordinary amount of school spirit which is important as she’s in charge of planning campus-wide events to build community. It’s only been a few days since school started, but she’s already spearheaded a huge 9/11 memorial event. Outside of council, she’s part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Black History Month.

VP of Communications: Virat Gupta — he’s a real high energy guy and a transfer from University of Michigan. Tasked with establishing better communication between councils and students, he has no easy job. A few promises: a revamped website and “office hours” held by council members — we’ll keep you all updated to see if students will actually take advantage of these options. Gupta is part of Youth for Debate and the Bach Society.

VP of Funding: Kevin Zhai – he is the new kid on the block and has already ruffled some feathers of other council members during the F@CU process to determine the budgets for student group governing boards. He promises to re-institute student life grants which fund students with new, creative ideas for campus projects. The only one without council experience (pro: is not jaded and is idealistic, con: needs to learn to negotiate the politics), he’s in Varsity Swim, Sigma Nu, Asian American Alliance and ABC.