After weeks of debate, Columbia College Student Council passed a resolution proposing the formation of a joint co-sponsorship committee across all four undergraduate councils.
22 members voted for it, five against, and one abstained. Engineering Student Council, General Studies Student Council, and Barnard’s Student Government Association have already unanimously approved the proposal. The trial period for the new committee will begin as soon as possible, according to members of CCSC.
The proposal, drafted by Brandon Christophe, CC ’12, Narayan Subramanian, SEAS ’13, Dan Lagana, GS, and Priyata Patel, BC ’11, states that the co-sponsorship application and approval process “detracts from the time student groups should spend enhancing their events and/or initiatives.”
It also states that one of the goals of the new committee will be to alleviate the “unnecessary burden on the councils to go through a three-step process to approve a co-sponsorship.”
Student groups seek co-sponsorship funding from various councils for events and activities held throughout the year.
Christophe said the new resolution will help streamline the process.
“It allows student groups to say, ‘I’m going to fill out one application, make one presentation, and I can hear back about all of my funding issues from one source,’ as opposed to doing four applications and working through four different colleges, receiving their funding at four different times, and having to deal with their advisor in four different ways,” he said.
Though the proposal was mostly positively received, there were some members of CCSC who raised concerns in the weeks leading up to the vote, including Aki Terasaki, CC ’12 and class president.
“I think that it’s great the councils are making it easier for clubs to apply for these funds, but that is a front-end problem. Front-end meaning what the client sees. The back-of-the-house stuff is what I have issues with—how the actual decision’s being made and the logistics behind it,” he said.
Some CCSC members said they worried the new process would be less transparent and less focused on the councils’ individual constituencies. As it stands now, there are between five and eight members on the CCSC co-sponsorship committee, while the council will only delegate two members to the new group. Terasaki, a member of the current co-sponsorship committee, thought the small size of the proposed group would be problematic.
“I view one of CCSC’s roles as a steward for the student life fee, and if the discussion is being reduced to such a small level, we’re not doing our job to adequately distribute those funds,” he said.
Subramanian, the intergroup vice president for ESC, said he thinks that the new group is a step towards a “joint Columbia community,” and may actually solve some transparency issues with student groups trying to cheat the complicated system.
“If there’s only one place for them to appeal for funds, there’s no room for hanky-panky business of any sort,” he said.
The other authors of the proposal, who would sit on the new committee, agreed that this resolution would benefit the entire community. Diana Rastegayeva, BC ’11 and vice president for communications for SGA, said that members of her council were very excited. Alexandra Voss, BC ’11 and Club Sports president, stood up at the Feb. 13 CCSC meeting and said that members of her board applauded when they heard about it.
At that same meeting, senior class president Sean Udell said that the proposed system “makes for a lazier process.”
Christophe said he disagrees with Udell’s assessment.
“Lazy? It’s not lazy. It’s basically efficient.”
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