Merge SGB and ABC

I have served on the two largest undergraduate governing boards, the Student Governing Board (SGB) and the Activities Board at Columbia (ABC). Both boards allocate funds to their groups, grant additional funds throughout the year, play a role in new group recognition, enforce certain spending guidelines, and pursue policies designed to enhance student life at Columbia. Yet the two governing boards are separate, and their separation can be explained by history rather than by reason. It’s my conviction that the two governing boards should be separate no longer, that in order to ensure the efficient allocation of student life fees, provide for the common defense of student space on campus, and promote student life, a unified, reformed, autonomous governing board should be established.

What should such a governing board look like? It should take the best elements from ABC and SGB and fuse them together. From SGB, it should take the principle of autonomy and the philosophy of trusting groups to program without interference by the governing board. From ABC, it should take the committee structure (ABC has three standing committees: Appeals, New Group Recognition, and Policy) and certain procedures and policies that make running a larger governing board easier.

To be sure, there are sticking points. SGB and ABC have significantly different funding guidelines, allocation procedures, appeal/co-sponsorship policies, and new group recognition procedures. In line with the principle that groups know best how to spend their own funds, I’d prefer SGB’s looser guidelines over ABC’s stricter ones. I’d also prefer the autonomy of SGB’s new group recognition process—students have sole say over which groups gain SGB recognition, as they should, whereas administrators have final say over which groups gain ABC recognition. At the same time, I’m partial to ABC’s new allocation process, which is more transparent and rational than SGB’s, and to ABC’s strict policy on granting appeals only for unexpected and emergency expenses.

What would ABC groups gain from the creation of a new governing board? There would be no more Event Approval Forms, i.e. groups would no longer need approval from ABC before spending any money whatsoever. Spending guidelines would be more liberal. As a whole, the governing board would be less intrusive and bureaucratic for ABC groups.

What would SGB groups gain? SGB groups (and ABC groups, for that matter) would receive better representation and benefit from more policy initiatives taken up by the governing board, which would represent over 230 groups and serve thousands of students with a budget of over $650,000. A combined governing board would provide a clear, unified voice for student groups and would be in a better position to fight for and protect their interests.

The student body in general would benefit from a system that makes more sense. One set of funding guidelines, one financial system, and one new group recognition process would make the bureaucracy less intimidating and complicated for students. A unified governing board, rather than two competing governing boards, would also be in a better position to allocate Student Life Fee funds efficiently.

In my mind, a governing board should be designed according to three principles: autonomy from the administration and other branches of student government, efficiency in rules and procedures, and trust in groups to program and spend as they see fit. A governing board should be a resource for groups, not an obstacle. ABC has made progress this year in aligning itself according to those principles, to which SGB already largely adheres. But a unified, reformed governing board that’s consciously designed to adhere to those principles is a real possibility. So, ABC and SGB, let’s set aside our differences and come together to do something substantial, something that will truly improve student life on campus. Let’s design a new, better governing board to serve and represent our groups, and let’s do it this coming year, so that by next spring together we elect the members of the first unified governing board.

The author is a Columbia College senior majoring in economics-political science. He is the outgoing president of ABC and former secretary of SGB.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated Beezly Kiernan's positions on SGB and ABC. Spectator regrets the error.