Against GSSC Impeachment

Serious efforts have been made to impeach the current President of the General Studies Student Council, Niko Cunningham, after a year of controversy and dissatisfaction with his leadership. Allegations of financial impropriety have been made and the president has been asked to resign.

We do not deny that the president’s leadership is seriously lacking, but if the council believes that the president must go, then each council member must follow him. The council is complicit in this disappointing year.

A hazard of the electoral process is that we often elect candidates who disappoint us, but disappointment alone does not warrant impeachment. That punishment should be reserved for grievous impropriety and malfeasance. The GSSC and the president are equally at fault for the council’s sullied reputation, and for the lost opportunities to make GS and Columbia a better place. Rather than pointing fingers, it may be more productive to look at the GSSC’s own work over the last year.

Council members have been disinclined to work together and have adopted an oppositional mentality—seeing potential conflict where it does not exist. We hope the GSSC, when considering where to lay the blame of this unproductive year, will consider the role it has played. By the public airing of personal differences and disputes, the unwillingness to share limited council resources, and unfounded presumptions of conspiracy and malice, the council has contributed to an unprofessional and unproductive environment. Many GS students have had careers before coming to school here and would be appalled at the lack of basic professionalism this council has displayed.

Beyond the council’s reputation is that of the School of General Studies as a whole. At a time when the Columbia community is discussing the nature of the school’s involvement and further integration into the University—at a time when GS has needed to put its best foot forward—the council has failed its student body. The school’s image among the other school councils, governing boards, and in the University administration is at an all-time low. The council and the president have equally squandered the good will of administrators, which is crucial for any progress.

GS students have argued for a greater role in campus life. We have argued that our life experiences make us desirable additions to the campus. We have argued that our maturity and experience can benefit other students. The student council is a very public face of GS. It has exhibited neither maturity nor a willingness to work with others. This reflects badly on all of us, and makes our demands for parity and increased responsibility ring hollow. How can we prove we can work effectively with the larger campus community when we can not work with one another?

The council is full of intelligent, creative, and passionate individuals. The potential of the GSSC is enormous with the caveat that it learn to work together. This is vital in order to salvage these last months of this year, but also to change the institutional culture which the council has created. The tragedy of this is that it has served to alienate the students that it is supposed to represent at this crucial juncture.

Impeachment is not the answer. Every one of us is culpable in this disastrous year. Students should have held their council members accountable for their behavior, but more importantly, council members should have held themselves to a higher standard rather then choosing to stoop to the level of finger pointing. Let the blame game end. As GS students, we beg the council to apply its energies to more productive activities and to realize that compromise and consensus are the most powerful tools at its disposal.

Anastasia Gornick is a student in the School of General Studies studying Political Science. Aaron Lewis is a student in the School of General Studies studying Political Science.