Educate Yourself, Student Government

Our campus has faced some extremely contentious issues over the last couple semesters—Naval ROTC and the Manhattanville expansion. However, many students often feel ill-informed about both of these critical topics. The problem is not only that our campus feels unfamiliar with these issues, but also that our student leaders are not educated enough. If we student leaders are not well-informed ourselves, then we cannot successfully reach out to the student body.

Reaching out to our community starts with understanding what happens within our board meetings. Internal group dynamics are important for an organization’s success. Board members have to be content with their roles and assigned tasks, willing to work with others, and genuinely enthusiastic about being part of the group’s initiatives. I have struggled to keep the entire Columbia College Student Council educated about issues such as Naval ROTC, while also reaching out to other students as well. To be honest, I am naturally inclined to reach out and initiate conversations around campus without checking in with the entire board. I think the council can fall out of touch with my work, and this needs to be improved. I know many other student leaders face the same dilemma, and part of the problem comes from student boards not having enough time together. The solution: everyone must do their own research in order to understand the histories of campus issues. If every student does this, then the context of the current policy under debate should be intelligible. Not being directly involved with a policy’s development does not excuse a student from understanding its implications. Talk to your group’s advisers, find out what is going on, even if you are not the president of your organization and this history doesn’t immediately affect your role.

When it came to the Naval ROTC survey, the main issue discussed in our student government meetings was our transparency in coordinating the process with campus groups. This was an important conversation, and an issue that the student government and student groups need to constantly improve upon in order to truly represent the University’s concerns. However, a larger concern eluded us throughout the process. Many students did not know the history of Naval ROTC. The student council was not prepared to discuss the issues surrounding it, such as the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, potential financial aid incentives, or campus recruiting. These should have been the main topics discussed, rather than our initial failure to include the entire campus in the survey process. The future of the campus was at stake, and students wanted to make sure we were sensitive to every perspective. Still, many student government members did not discuss the pros and cons of having a Naval ROTC program on Columbia’s campus. We chose to distance ourselves from the issue, keeping our real voices out of the debate. We were so concerned with how others would view our political views that we did not learn enough about the issue. We should not be afraid of learning about contentious policy ideas. If we learn more about them, I’m sure many of us would feel inclined to voice an opinion for or against the particular cause. As far as transparency is concerned, only the survey organizers should have stepped back from expressing their views.

I also get a strong feeling that many students do not know about the politics surrounding the Manhattanville expansion plan. My fellow columnist and friend Andrew Lyubarsky’s organization, the Student Coalition on Expansion and Gentrification, dedicates much of its efforts to encouraging the University to seek more of the Harlem community’s involvement with the expansion. Dozens of op-eds have been written about Manhattanville over the past several years. Still, many students in student government—not just those in CCSC—have not expressed their opinions about the plan in their council meetings or in Spectator opinion pieces. What are we afraid of? We’re on student council—we clearly have opinions about what we think is right and wrong for the campus. The answer is that we do not know enough about the issue. Many of us, myself included, did not know the difference between the 197-a and 197-b plans. After inviting Andrew to talk to us about SCEG, we have researched the situation much more ourselves. We now know a great deal more about the expansion’s effects upon rent-stabilized housing and job creation for local residents. We will now encourage the University to host more job expositions for the local communities, and host some of our own walking tours of the area as well. We need to improve these self-education efforts to other aspects of campus life as well, such as student disciplinary procedures, lounge space, and financial aid.

Next semester, all the class representatives will have voting rights and attendance requirements. This means more students will be involved in the decisions we make, and I hope this means more of our student government members will be informed and ready to share their knowledge with the campus. Other student governments also need to do a better job including the voices of their various members. The executive board’s president is not the only person who should be spearheading the council’s initiatives.

Encourage yourself and your fellow board members to get educated about our campus issues. You’ll find yourself being a better leader, and having more of an influence on your organization’s decisions as well.

Adil Ahmed is a Columbia College senior majoring in history. He is the CCSC vice president of policy. Additional Minutes runs alternate Wednesdays. Opinion@columbiaspectator.com">Opinion@columbiaspectator.com