We have no idea what is going on

Bwogger Britt Fossum attended this week’s ESC meeting, which seemed to her like “a strange place.”  Want to know what happens when a Bwog writer and a bunch of engineers mix?  Read on (there’s a punchline in here somewhere).

This week’s ESC meeting got off to an interesting start: Bwog got there about 10 minutes late and walked in on a lecture by a business school professor Angela Lee on pyramid schemes the pyramid principle, or how to be more convincing when talking to people. And then she started calling on people. OF COURSE I CAME TO THE ESC MEETING WITH STUDENT PARTICIPATION REQUIRED. To quote the council member sitting next to me, “This is not a regular occurrence, this is boring as shit.” Other representatives asked legitimate questions after she was done with the presentation instead of eye rolling which is why they are in ESC and I am a Bwog writer.

After her presentation was over, ESC got down to the business of patting each other the back for an excellent SEAS week. Everyone had something to say about how proud they all were of each other and there were snaps all around. They are also working on making meeting agendas available on the website and using that website more now that they have one. Most of the ESC project grants are going well and are on schedule to do really cool engineering projects. The assassins launch was very successful, new high of 30 some teams, officially starting this Tuesday at 11 PM. Most importantly they’ve had a great reception on social media. Which is the only marker of success that really matters. There are more thank yous and speechifying here than the Oscars.

In more shocking news, some grad student on college walk was surprised to find out there was an engineering school. All the reps agreed that they should work to fix the idea that there is no engineering school at Columbia.

Jillian Ross announced plans to work with RA training to introduce more sexual assault training and requested more presence from ESC at town hall meetings. The senators also plan to talk to Chicano Caucus about the recent shitstorm (not ESC’s working).The senior class has scheduled events for the rest of the year such as sweater distribution and Lerner Pub. For the Junior class, apparently 146 SEAS 2015 sweatshirts were ordered. The sophomore class wants to plan Major meet-and-greets. The Freshman class doesn’t have much planned, at least at this meeting.

There is another Columbia-hosted math competition coming up, and the Green Labs initiative—making labs more green and clean—is well underway. Sustainability certification procedure for labs. They are launching a pilot program in Mudd and discussed motivating labs through practices like outside ratings and a minimum requirement if there is a school buy-in.

A GS Rep also came to the meeting to advocate for opening up spaces because of commuters sleeping over. A plan to set up cots seems very half-baked, but that’s one of the options ESC discusses. 3,2 students have it rough. Apparently there is circumstantial evidence of commuter students sleeping over in labs. Average commute is not that bad but with 2-3 hours that’s a long time, and is especially bad for engineering students, so granting swipe access to 3-2 program students and commuters is a high priority. A representative questioned whether students with on campus housing would be allowed to use the facilities.

Confusion about pyramids via Shutterstock