August senators.

Pictured: senatorial auctoritas.

Word from Columbia College University Senators Matthew Chou and Jared Odessky: a USenate seat for the College has opened up. You—yes, you!—can actually apply. Just email the three people in the email you got/that is pasted below.

The lucky CC student will be selected via “indirect election,” which is like an election except that the winner is picked by the two current senators, plus the CCSC president, plus another CCSC exec, instead of the constituents.

So apply!

From Spec:

In an interview Wednesday, Akshay Shah, SEAS ’14, and also a co-chair of the student affairs committee, said he’d like to see a new senator chosen as soon as possible.

“We’re hoping at the earliest possible, because we don’t want to disenfranchise the CC body, obviously,” Shah said. “But at the same time, we wanna make sure the process is fair, transparent, and timely.”

Email:

Dear Columbia College,

Hello from your University Senators, Matthew Chou (CC ’14) and Jared Odessky (CC ’15)—we hope you’ve had a wonderful start to the school year. We are writing to update you on the University Senate, Columbia University’s legislature. The Senate, which is second only to the Board of Trustees, represents alumni, faculty, research scientists, librarians, senior administrators, and students across Columbia’s 20 constituent and affiliated schools.

One of the College’s three Senate seats is currently vacant. While the College’s senators are normally directly elected, this seat will be filled via indirect election in accordance with Chapter 2, §21(g) of the University Statutes, and Section 5(c) of the Columbia College Student Council’s (CCSC) Constitution.

If you wish to be considered for this seat, submit your resumé and a 500-word-max personal statement to Matthew Chou (mc3429@columbia.edu), Jared Odessky (jho2115@columbia.edu), and Daphne Chen (dlc2146@columbia.edu) by Wednesday, October 2. All students of the College are eligible for consideration. A panel comprising the College’s current senators, CCSC President, and one additional CCSC Executive Board member will interview candidates and nominate up to three finalists, one of whom will be elected by CCSC as a whole.

Stay posted for another email introducing our new senator and explaining the Senate Student Affairs Committee’s agenda for the year. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to either of us.

Sincerely,

Matt and Jared

Matthew Chou
Co-Chair, Student Affairs Committee
Member, Executive Committee of the Senate

Jared Odessky
University Senator