SGB Recognizes New Student Groups at Town Hall

The Student Governing Board recognized seven student groups at its semiannual town hall meeting Monday night.

The meeting, held in Earl Hall despite last winter’s move to the Office of Student Government Advising, saw the approval of all groups the executive board had recommended for recognition, ranging from trans-rights awareness to student-run think tanks. The newly-recognized groups are now eligible to reserve space on campus.

With the addition of the Feed Club to the board, SGB created and approved the Hunger Umbrella to encompass future groups relating to world hunger, of which Feel Good CU is currently the only other constituent. The groups will share funding, a result of last year’s recognition of humanitarian groups, a decision which SGB Vice-Chair Jesse Leiken, CC ’08, acknowledged has strained resources. SGB Chair Jonathan Siegel, CC ’08, emphasized the push for umbrella groups as “logical synergy.”

“We’ve recognized that there is a shortage of resources,” Leiken said. “It’s a new mode of thinking.”

SGB representative-at-large Jim Downie, CC ’10, introduced the Columbia Coalition, a new system designed to provide a formal structure for ad-hoc organizations that rally around a transitory issue, such as that which formed to respond to the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this semester. Under the new Coalition, the SGB would provide funding to an ephemeral organization composed of five groups or individuals, which would center on a day of action. Board members described the Coalition as a way for different groups to unite around a singular rallying point temporarily.

“It provides a formal structure for a quick and efficient response for groups to come about issues,” Downie said.

Attendees raised concerns that this would add unnecessary bureaucracy. “There’s no reason anyone has to use this group—it’s a resource,” Siegel said, describing the College Democrats’ response to the appearance of former Attorney General John Ashcroft on campus in 2005.

The SGB executive board had voted against recommending the approval of Stop AIDS In Its Tracks, which Leikin cited as being too similar to other AIDS activist groups on campus to justify recognition. SGB also denied recognition to the Cambodia Project following an executive-board vote against recommendation for approval, citing concerns that approval would give rise to other regionally-focused groups.

“We’re just trying to take any cost-saving measure,” Siegel said.

Siegel also discussed what he characterized as progress on issues regarding letters of intent the administration had said groups would have to provide in order to bring any guest speakers to campus. As a result of SGB negotiations with the administration, groups currently have to provide two-page letters of intent only for events that trigger an “event review,” Siegel said. The Lerner Hall Web site defines such events as those which can include the presence of media and the potential for significant disruption.

Groups Recognized Without Funding:

• Free Culture at Columbia, a group concerned with intellectual property and communications policy

• Peer Health Exchange, a group dedicated to helping students make informed health-related decisions

• The Roosevelt Institution, a progressive think tank

Groups Recognized With Funding

• Gender Revolution, a trans-rights advocacy group

• Hunger umbrella, created for the two groups that deal with world hunger.

Groups Denied Recognition

• Cambodia Project

• Stop Aids in Its Tracks


Daniel Amzallag contributed reporting to this article.

Alix Pianin can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.