Smiling, in the sun, with the lawn not covered in white tarp- we post this to remind him of who he once was in anticipation of what is to come.

In light of our dripping enthusiasm about student government, Bwog sat down with recently-elected CCSC 2018 President Ezra Gontownik to talk shop.

Bwog: So, tell me a little about yourself, or, in other words, let’s reduce your life to a catchy little sound bite?

EG: Catchy little sound bite?

I’m the youngest of six boys; grew up fifteen minutes from here. Three of my older brothers attended the engineering school, so people thought I was on the fast track to engineering. Veered from the path a little bit and applied to the College.

Bwog: Now that you’re elected, what do you want to represent as a political agent? Are you a reformer? An advocate for the people? A bureaucrat?

EG: I’ve been here for about a month now. I’m not here to reform the place; I have to get situated with the place: hear from my fellow classmates what they would like to see changed, see for ourselves what we would like to see change. We are very fortunate in that we’re working with a council that has been incredibly helpful with assisting us with how the formalities work, with how the meetings work. And that has been very beneficial for us.

People should be comfortable coming to us and express what they want. It should never be ‘oh those people are on student council.’ It’s too official. We’re their friends. We’re their classmates. We just happen to represent them on student council. There should be no shyness coming to us and asking for something to change and asking for something new.

Bwog: What do you view as the role of student government at Columbia? Either what it is or what it should be.

EG: CCSC2018 will cater exclusively to the needs of the Columbia College class of 2018. We will hopefully host one large event each semester in addition to smaller events throughout the school year, following in line with those events that have been done in previous years. We will learn from the upperclassman what, as to what about those events was successful, and what changes need to be implemented for those events.

In terms of the larger student council, we first represent the needs of the student body to the administration.  Then we have to make sure that all student groups are allocated their funds properly- I personally sit on the finance committee working with Michael Li, to make sure that those funds are allocated properly- and obviously go over the campus policies to make sure they’re in line with what the students believe they should be.

The main thing that the Columbia class, the CC2018 wants to get across is that we hope to create a vibrant community, a sort of say unified grade. Future Nobel Prize winners, future writers, future artists, future businessmen, future people who are going to run the best non-profits in the world, are in our class, right? No one wants to say twenty years from now “Oh I was in class with that person who just started that company; I was in class with that person who’s now working in the White House.” No one wants to have the feeling of ‘Oh I was in class with that person but I never actually met that person.’ We want to create events on campus that create more of a cohesive grade, events like speed meeting, for people who are still interested in meeting other people in the class.

Bwog: Hector or Achilles, you first-year, you?

EG: I respect the choice of moving from nostos [νόστος] to kleos [κλέος], but more than nostos and kleos, standing up for a friend. Realizing that after Patroclus’s death, he could not longer live, Achilles moved past his wrath against Agamemnon. He recognized that standing up for a friend and fighting for that was more important to him then a disagreement with another friend.

You’re lucky I just studied for my lit hum quiz; I actually know who Hector and Achilles are!

Bwog: Abbreviated moral dilemma: life of glory or life of simple contentment?

EG: Well it depends on how you define content because people have different levels of content.

Bwog: And how do you define content?

EG: I would define content as satisfying the goals and aspirations I set for myself in terms of benefit others because being content for me is leaving this world- this is getting a little deep here- is leaving this world a little better for the people I’ve come in contact with in my life.