As students at the School of General Studies head to the polls Monday to elect their next council, financial aid, housing, and debt remain key issues for two candidates vying for the presidency.
With an extra week of campaigning under their belts, General Studies Student Council presidential candidates Alfred Davis and Katherine Edwards now look forward to seeing the fruits of their efforts.
Originally, elections were scheduled for early April to mark the culmination of a traditional one-week campaign period, but they were delayed an additional week because they conflicted with Passover and Easter.
With additional time to campaign, the two presidential candidates took a multifaceted approach to promoting the issues they champion as central concerns to their respective campaigns, such as financial aid and housing for GS students. Both Edwards and Davis boast fliers and a Facebook group—with 52 and 68 members by Sunday evening, respectively—and have not been afraid to think outside the box.
“I have a t-shirt I’ve been wearing around campus ... that says, ‘Vote Katherine for President,’” said Edwards, who is currently the GSSC vice president of communication.
But underlying the light-hearted competition is each candidate’s goal of addressing long-standing issues unique to students in General Studies.
GS students notoriously experience the shortcomings of University housing. As many are burdened with paying the entirety of tuition without financial help from family—aid calculations at GS are different from those at undergraduate schools because they are independents—simply affording to stay in school can be a struggle.
Edwards acknowledged that there is only so much a student can do in a term as president, but nevertheless she has some ideas of where to start.
“Although the many complexities of GS housing are long-term issues, one thing that can and must begin next year is earlier notification of housing acceptance,” Edwards said in her campaign statement.
In his, Davis said he hopes to gather statistics about who takes advantage of University housing to aid in a conversation he hopes to have with the administration.
Both candidates also cite financial aid as an issue tantamount to GS students’ concerns about housing. In the past six years, the amount of debt accumulated by GS students while at Columbia has increased by over 100 percent.
Davis criticized the University’s approaches of comparing GS to Columbia College, deeming them “inadequate” in his campaign speech.
“The ... model that the College operates under and GS subscribes to as well is meant to support lower-income individuals because they can get need-based aid,” Davis wrote. “Right now, however, so few GS students receive adequate aid that it does not seem to be a fair approach.”
Edwards suggested that “the administration should assist students in finding competitive loan rates and outside scholarships.”
Davis said in an interview that he wanted to push for further integration between GS students and other Columbia undergraduates, which he said called for more GS students participating in undergraduate groups and initiatives.
Davis would be a newcomer to GSSC, but said that his three years participating in other undergraduate groups—he is the chair of the New Group Recognition Committee of the Activities Board at Columbia and is involved in the Greek community—gave him the opportunity to understand Columbia from all sides. Right now, he said, GS students are not necessarily attuned to the goings on at the University because many work and live off-campus—much in the way that other undergraduates are out of touch with the School of General Studies. Davis said that bridging the gap as well as “putting a face to GS” was crucial. With increased recognition of the problems on both sides, students may have more productive dialogues about GS-related problems and difficulties.
Michael Rain, vice president of policy, said in an e-mail that the elections had been running “pretty smoothly” with an even-handed election commission and a low number of candidate complaints filed, but did say that the commission was facing some problems handling write-in candidates. As GSSC by-laws do not require write-in candidates to declare with the commission, those candidates often have not been briefed on official elections rules, nor have they been cleared by the Dean of Studies office to be declared in good standing at the school.
Rain added that he had identified these problems along with GSSC president Brody Berg and the council policy committee, and planned to present them to the GSSC with some by-law changes to ensure more efficient elections in the future.
GSSC voting closes Tuesday.
Correction appended: An earlier version of this article called Katherine Edwards vice president of policy. She is vice president of communications, and Spectator regrets the error.
Comments
We're looking for comments that are interesting and substantial. If your comments are excessively self-promotional or obnoxious you will be banned from commenting. Consult the comment FAQ and legal terms.