Last night’s ESC meeting included discussions of proper Bacchanal behavior, PACSA, and the seemingly ubiquitous honor code. Also in the spirit of #throwbacchanal, the council discussed a possible throwback to its School of Mines days. What could this throwback be? Bwog sent inquirer Joe Milholland to answer this question and more.
Much like Sunday night’s CCSC meeting, the April 7 Engineering Student Council meeting featured a discussion among council members about Dean Martinez’s email to student body about proper behavior at Bacchanal. At CCSC’s meeting, the council had proposed a new email with less formal language and more specificity about bad behavior at last year’s Bacchanal. The e-mail the ESC looked at in their meeting talked about vandalism and events and places on the Saturday of Bacchanal that would “serve as alternatives to other unsafe behavior,” as President Bhatt put it.
In a straw poll, most council members wanted to support the email. However, some council members raised questions and complaints about the e-mail. The new e-mail from Martinez did not address rudeness towards staff that many council members thought was important to include. Also, Class of 2015 President Joshua Boggs thought it would be hypocritical for ESC to sign the e-mail since the council is not doing anything during Bacchanal to combat bad behavior and the Facebook page for ESC’s SEAS the Night event the night before Bacchanal said the council was giving out “beer mugs.” The wording on the Facebook event has been changed, and the council will be giving out coffee mugs during SEAS the Night. Others thought that describing vandalism from last year might lead over-intoxicated students to top the destruction.
University Senator Ashkay Shah gave updates on recently announced senate information. PACSA will now have 3 student members in a body of 13 members instead of 2 student members in a body of 24 members. As PrezBo announced, there will be a EVP of Student Affairs who will report to the President. The four undergraduate deans of Student Affairs will report to the EVP. Also, a global centers survey is upcoming.
Other Updates:
- The council also unanimously passed a resolution for a SEAS Honor Code that engineering first-years would recite during convocation.
- Sustainability Liason Malini Nambiar is working on a program that would have students sign up for different printing quota plans with different costs. There is also the possibility of student group quotas.
- VP of Communications Jillian Ross has a plan for a CULPA-thon in Lerner with food during reading week. However, some council members pointed out that students would be stressed during reading week and information on finals is an important part of CULPA reviews, so the plan may change.
- Ross also met with RAs to discuss the sexual assault policy on campus.
- Council members at SEAS the Night, which is on the evening before Bacchanal as mentioned above, will be giving away coffee mugs as well as sunglasses with “#takeitSEASy” printed on their sides.
- The class of 2015 is making “School of Mines throwback shirts”
- The CUIT Advisory Committee is going to put Solid State Disks (SSDs) in to computers around campus. SSDs make computers run faster and use energy more efficiently.
- The ESC will have a SEAS Days on Campus booth where President Bhatt says it is “always fun to tell [prospies] why they should pick Columbia Engineering over MIT.”
SEAS student of old via Shutterstock
14 Comments
@Anonymous My cousin chose Brown engineering over MIT (did not get into Columbia), because as soon as she went to the days on campus, she ran. Its all unidimensional males with no personality or talents. The undergraduate classes are all taught by TAs.
@Anonymous I think it would be perfectly reasonable to pick SEAS over MIT from a fit perspective. Not every engineer wants to settle down and do hardcore engineering for the majority of their college career and onward (not saying MIT is strictly engineering, but Columbia definitely has a different feel that may be more attractive to some).
@(ED) seas '14 also MIT has this reputation of being filled with robo-humans. If, for some insane reason, you want to study engineering but also want to be around some non-engineers, a strictly-engineering school probably isn’t what you want.
@honest question “Sustainability Liason Malini Nambiar is working on a program that would have students sign up for different printing quota plans with different costs.”
I don’t usually follow this stuff at all so I’m out of the loop, but are they considering killing the current system in favor of paying for an amount? Or is this for extra printing over the 100/100?
@at the meeting Printing costs currently come straight out of student life fees. The idea is to lower student life fees, and then give students the option of opting into their own printing quota, similar to dining plans.
@still honest don’t know how i feel about that, but thanks for the reply! anyone know how much in student life fees is for printing alone?
@Excuse me, but . . . Why would someone want to pick Columbia Engineering over MIT? I love Columbia, but in engineering MIT is the brass rat, so to speak.
@SEAS '14 Listen I LOVE Columbia.. but if I’d gotten into MIT, I’d have totally gone there instead!!! I’d judge a person if they chose SEAS over MIT unless it was some extenuating circumstance like needing to stay in NYC for health or family reasons. #rejected
@SEAS '14 I forgot to say – I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU! :-)
@SEAS '15 Not everything is about rankings. If someone really loved the culture here, then it makes sense to prioritize that.
@Anonymous For undergraduate engineering Columbia is actually ranked higher than MIT, 4th vs 5th on USNWR.
@Excuse me, but . . . Unfortunately, that is not true. Columbia doesn’t even crack the top 10. Just google “undergraduate engineering rankings usnwr.”MIT ranks #1.
Please understand that I absolutely adore Columbia.
@Anonymous Columbia is a much better all around school, especially if you are looking to take classes in liberal arts fields and meet non engineeering students. If you are looking for a full ivy league liberal arts university, plus a top engineering school, Columbia is the best of all worlds. Also, nothing is going on at MIT campus, is it a very boring, isolated expererience.
@Excuse me, but . . . I’ve lectured on MIT’s campus – there is a TON going on.