Vice Dean Kachani—a sparkle in his eye

This week’s ESC meeting featured a guest appearance from Vice Dean of Columbia Engineering Soulaymane Kachani.  Of course, he was only the second most important guest at the meeting next to Bwog’s own Joe Milholland, here to give you a recap of this week’s exciting meeting.

After first commenting that there should be food for the council members at their meetings, Kachani praised the council and President Bhatt for their work. In terms of recent issues ESC has tackled, he said that implementing the honor code will require SEAS to “change the culture” and that time will tell whether removing the requirement for professional courses is a good idea. He also noted the lack of feedback for the pass/fail implementation, which he said is only a “two year pilot” that he wants data from at its conclusion.

Kachani gave some statistics related to SEAS. A study put SEAS #2 on return on investment, and the US New & World Report ranked Columbia Engineering #1 for best online grad program.

He then related some of the projects he and other SEAS administrators are working on. SEAS is investing in a WeWork building on 175 Varick St.. SEAS will have a third of the space for the startups of young alumni. Columbia Engineering will engage in the research into personalized medicine. Kachani is also looking at globilization, overseas programs, and freedom of expression. Kachani concluded his speech by saying “It has never been a better time to be a geek.”

Kachani then took questions from council members. He was asked about open course evaluations. Kachani said that schools are getting numeric and qualitative data in CourseWorks and can release it however they want. He was also asked about his plan for “flipping classrooms.” The flipping classroom program, Kachani explained, would involve “taking the passive learning” from classes (that is, the lectures) and putting it in a video for students to watch in their dorms and “moving the more active exercises of the class” for class time. Essentially, lectures would be done in dorms during students’ free time and homework time would be during classes.

Kachani was also asked about space and sharing class space with MS students. “There is no space that is not used,” he said. Columbia has brought in consultants to deal with space and classroom issues. However, the consultants usually suggest to institute Friday classes and more early morning classes. Kachani emphasized that when the B-school goes to Manhattanville, lots of space will open up in Uris for Columbia classes.

When asked about differences in grading between departments, Kachani said that research needs to be done before he can do anything or say anything with confidence. “I’m guessing it’s a very complicated issue,” he said.

Other updates:

• The council unanimously voted in favor of CUFSN’s initiative.
• Speaking about divestment, University Senator Ashkay Shah said the President’s Advisory Committe on Socially Responsible Investing needed to do more research before taking action. VP of Communications Jillian Ross asked about what the committee does and whether it is active, and Shah responded that it has been active “both years” he has been a senator, and its purpose is “making resolutions” for PrezBo.
• School of Mines t-shirts are coming soon and will cost $5
• The council talked about changing the rules in their constitution about referendums, which currently require at least 2/3rds of at least 50% of the SEAS student body to support in an election to pass.

Very special guest via Columbia University