Candidates talk transparency at USenate debate

The six candidates vying for two Columbia College seats in the University Senate discussed student space and senate transparency at a debate Sunday evening.

The candidates stayed true to their platforms during the mostly informal event in Lerner Party Space on the eve of voting, which begins this morning and will run through Wednesday evening.

Incumbent senator Alex Frouman, CC ’12, is running for re-election. He is competing against Chris Canales, CC ’14, Steven Castellano, CC ’13, Matthew Chou, CC ’14, Dylan Lonergan, CC ’13, and Eduardo Santana, CC ’13.

Early in the debate, senators were asked how they would make the senate more transparent to students.

Lonergan advocated for more funding for senators to host events and to increase opportunities for interaction with students, where critical discussions could be held.

“We want something involving senators [in the community],” Lonergan said. “Senators don’t get funded in student affairs, and we want more money to do more, to have events with things that are policy-based and free food in order to get more [student] opinion and more people.”

Castellano agreed that the senate should invest in more events. As senator, he said he would regularly reserve a table in Lerner in order to better communicate with students and student groups.

Santana, dressed in a suit and tie, praised the senate for its work on the recently-passed resolution advising the return of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. The senate’s task force held three town halls on the topic, which Santana said put “a face to the senate.”

During the issues portion of the debate, both Castellano and Lonergan expressed concern that there is not enough space for student activity on campus.

Lonergan noted that a lot of graduate schools have plans to move to Manhattanville, and said he fears that the Morningside Heights space that they vacate will fall into administrative hands.

“We need to advocate for this space to go to students,” Lonergan said. “This is something we have to do now. It might not affect us now, but for students in 2015, it will have a drastic effect.”

Castellano agreed that this space should go to students, adding that the senate should look at the environmental impact of the Manhattanville campus expansion.

Canales said a key priority for him would be to end December finals earlier due to religious conflicts for students. Currently, finals end Dec. 23, although students can try to reschedule finals that fall on that day—the result of a policy Frouman helped pass.

“There are more faculty members [than students] in the senate, and we students are not always going to get what they want,” Frouman said. “But part of it is just learning about the unique environment of the Senate, and learning how to interact with diverse communities.”

Santana said that an important part of his platform is the issue of cross-school swipe access in dorms on campus. He said he is “very open to investigating” more open swipe access, though he acknowledged the potential security risks of doing so.

Frouman’s number one goal is making course evaluations public, which he said he has already made significant steps toward accomplishing.

“My goal is to get quantitative data available for students,” Frouman said. “I’ve already made progress with the Education Committee, but there are still some concerns about graduate students not wanting their evaluations to be public.”

The candidates also discussed their previous experience, and made their case for why they would be the best choice.

Chou, a first-year, said he will contribute a younger voice to the senate, which consists mostly of faculty members, graduate students, and upperclassmen.

“I know what works and what doesn’t,” Chou said. He added that he is qualified to serve in the senate because of his experience on the policy committee, a separate committee that addresses issues and creates resolutions with CCSC.

Frouman touted his previous work on the senate, noting his involvement in writing the smoking ban that passed last semester, as well as his service on the senate’s ROTC task force.

Lonergan detailed his experience as a legislative assistant for the senate and a CCSC class representative, saying that he “knows how the senate really works.”

Castellano, like Chou, has worked on the policy committee, and Canales is rooted in Student Council experience as well.

Eduardo Santana said he will be able to “reach out from door to door,” even without experience with governance at Columbia, although he noted that he sat in on the Utah Association of Student Councils in high school.

As the debate ended, Frouman reminded the dozen students at the debate that the election uses an instant-runoff voting system, in which voters can rank candidates.

“Make sure you rank the candidate—preferably with me first,” Frouman said, laughing.

“Or me,” quipped Lonergan.

news@columbiaspectator.com